I kinda like you
by stardustinmypocket
Summary: Marley and Kitty are not just finding to each other, but also to themselves. A story about their past, their present and their future, revealing not only their feelings, but also their true character. KittyxMarley (Karley)
1. I Am The Best

**_A/N: Oh no. It happened. I started shipping Karley. I know from my Faberry experience that this is going to be hard. The first two chapters are like an introduction before the story will actually start. And I won't deal with the eating-disorder much, cause I luckily don't have experience with that and I doubt that people really wanna read about that. _**

**_Since I am a fan of K-Pop, the chapters are named after songs I like, so if you want you can listen to them while reading. ;) Todays song is I amd the best by 2NE1. _**

**Chapter 1 – I am the best**

Upright and with determined steps Kitty walked through the hallways of McKinley Highschool. She was flanked by some random football-players, who had indeed lots of muscles, but barely brain instead. Kitty didn't care about that. What she needed was attention. She enjoyed the awestruck – and whenever one of her Slushy-victims crossed her way anxious – looks of her fellow students and marched self-consciously through the gap that opened up in front of her.

Yes, she was Kitty Wilde, Cheerio, good-looking, blessed with good grades and on top of that a quite talented singer. Maybe she would even surpass her idol Quinn Fabray one day.

She closed her eyes for a short moment and imagined her glorious future until she suddenly was brought back to earth rudely, when she bumped into someone.

She opened her eyes and saw Marley's face right in front of her.

"Pay some attention when you walk around!" Kitty snapped at her and Marley stared back with a terrified expression. Kitty bit back an offence, but that wasn't even necessary anymore, because Marley had already disappeared in another direction while staring at the ground to not meet anybody's gaze.

Marley Rose. Again, Kitty thought while she continued walking grinding her teeth. She didn't know exactly herself, why Marley was making her so furious. Because of that she didn't leave out any opportunity harm the brunette in any way.

She realized that she had been going too far the last time. Kitty didn't feel sorry, but she knew that she had crossed a line that marked an area she was not supposed to set foot in. However, after Marley had fainted at Sectionals, her eating behavior had normalized again and she seemed to be more comfortable with her body. Kitty guessed that it was because of Jake and Ryder, who assured her like every two minutes that she was beautiful.

But Kitty didn't want Marley to be beautiful and she also didn't want her to be with Jake or Ryder, no, Kitty wanted to be better than Marley in every way, so that Marley couldn't shine brighter than her.

After it hadn't worked out in the friendship-way, Kitty had returned to using vulgarities to her; that seemed to have a better effect.

She indicated to her followers that they were allowed to leave her now and entered the classroom, in which she would have to endure chemistry now.

All students fell silent immediately and everyone tried not to be the next victim of one of Kitty's attacks.

Oh yes, they knew who was their queen.

* * *

Three hours later Kitty entered the Glee-rehearsal room. To her irritation nothing changed in their behavior and they all just continued what they were doing. These outsiders just didn't have any respect.

Grumpy she took one of the free seats in the first row and turned once again to give Marley a spiteful glance. She hit the target and turned to the front again.

After a short while Finn entered the room. Kitty really didn't like hat giant moron that acted up like something special. He fitted in perfectly in this squad of outsiders, though.

Besides Kitty, there were no exceptions, even Brittany, her fellow cheerio mate, was one of them. How could you possibly take her serious, if she told you that Lord Tubbington was going to study anthropology at Stanford, whereas she claimed that anthropology was a language spoken in Anthropoland, a neighboring state of Poland.

Kitty sighed and wondered why she had joined that club at all. Oh yeah, to have better control over Marley and to watch out that she wouldn't start something with one of these idiots.

"Attention, guys!" Finn said loudly and they fell silent hesitantly, even if most of them still had a problem to accept him as a person of authority.

"Okay", he began. "After Sectionals are over now and since we have some new members since this year, I suggest, that everyone will tell us why they want to stay in Glee club and how he or she experienced their time here. I think it'd be kinda cool." Kitty rolled her eyes due to his choice of words and blocked out the ebullient jabbering from now on since everyone would say the same things over and over again. Boring.

"Glee club is like family, I finally feel powerful, I belong here, I love singing and dancing, bla, bla, bla."

And suddenly it was Kitty's turn and they all looked at her eagerly.

"Poor guys", Kitty thought while smiling syrupy. "They're probably thinking I'm going to tell them something incredible nice, but sorry, that's not my nature."

"Why I am here?" Kitty began and turned on her chair, so that she could look at all of them. "Probably because I can finally get to know every species of losers to defend myself from them in real life. Glee is like a vaccination. I surround myself with you of my own free will, so that I won't catch the disease later."

"Kitty!" Finn tried to protest, but Kitty silenced him with an evil side glance and Finn actually shut up for now. Quinn's influence seemed to have made good effects on him.

"I don't let any foolish looking Hagrid tell me what to do", Kitty continued. "He's hardly different from any of you. I tries to act like an adult, but as soon as Mr. Shuester will return, he will be sitting on his chair like a good boy and hoping that he might get a job someday. Maybe he can start working with your brother", she said with focus on Jake. "I heard everyone can be successful in the pool-cleaning business, if your customers are some really old and rich grannies and if you're flexible with your services."

"That's enough!" Jake shouted and jumped up from his chair.

"Jake, calm down!" Marley said with a worried expression.

"No one asked you. I wish you and this whole club would just hide behind your mother, so that I don't have to see you every day."

"Stop it, seriously!" Finn shouted after he had finally gained his voice back, while tears started to flood Marley's eyes.

"What's wrong with you Kitty?" Finn asked. "Why are you so…evil?"

Kitty laughed and rose from her chair. "I'm just myself, okay? Why do you always have to search for reasons? I'm not evil or mean, I'm just honest and if that bothers you, it's your problem, you can't put me to silence!"

_And even if there was a reason, why should I tell you of all people?_, Kitty thought and left the room with her head raised high.

_**A/N2:**_**_Feel free to review and to make suggestions. Thanks in advance. ;)_**


	2. Don't Hate Me

**_A/N: Today's song is Don't hate me by Epik High. I hope you like the chapter. _  
**

**Chapter 2 – Don't Hate Me**

Shortly before school was about to start Marley entered McKinley High's schoolyard. Even though she was already quite late, there was not recognizable haste in her steps. She was too fascinated by the blanket of snow that had covered Lima over night. Marley loved snow, when she was a little child, she could barely wait for the first snow in winter. Every time she had been running outside immediately and had caught the snowflakes in the palm of her hand and watched them melting slowly.

She tilted her head back and looked at the blurred light-grey clouds above her. It seemed like it would be snowing even more. At the thought a slight smile appeared on her face.

"Hey fake-Rachel-Berry!" she suddenly heard from behind and turned around with a start.

There Kitty stood in her winter-cheerios-uniform regarding her with a mocking grin. In her hand she held a neatly formed snowball.

Marley lowered her gaze and wanted to turn around, but the snowball had already hit her right in the face.

"Be glad, I didn't hid a stone inside", Kitty murmured while passing by and she disappeared into the building.

Marley slowly rose her hands and wiped the snow off her face.

Kitty. That girl somehow had to mess up everything in her life.

Marley didn't know why Kitty hated her so much. For a while she had even thought that they were friends. However, that had been a painful delusion which had led to Glee club's defeat at Sectionals. Since then Marley tried not to let Kitty influence her in any way. She had realized that Kitty never had had the intention of helping her. Luckily she had managed just in time to gain back her old feeling for her body. She felt comfortable again, just the way she were. At least most of the time.

Yet, especially Kitty's verbal attacks still hurt her very much, sometimes more than she wanted to admit to herself.

Marley sighed while adjusting her hat and hurried to get to her class on time.

On her way she encountered Jake and Ryder, but due to lack of time, she just gave them a little smile and a short wave.

In the beginning Marley had enjoyed the attention they gave her, but by now she had started to get annoyed. She liked Jake and she liked Ryder. Very much. But nothing more than that. For a while she had fancied that she was possibly in love with Ryder, still, it had never really felt like it somehow. To be more precise, she didn't have a clue how it had to feel since she never really had been in love before to be honest – if you exclude the few little crushes.

And on top of that Ryder had kissed her just like that. Nevertheless, even in that moment Marley hadn't had the feeling that something special was going on inside her.

"Maybe I'm just not made for love", Marley thought and decided to make that clear to her admirers.

At lunch-break, before she'd have a meal, Marley paid a visit to her mother, who was currently in the middle of putting something that looked like it could have been vegetables half a century ago into a giant pot.

"Marley, my little girl!" Mrs. Rose welcomed her daughter with a warm smile. Marley immediately felt much better and her problems were forgotten for a short time.

"Everything alright?" her mother asked.

"Yeah, yeah", Marley responded and hugged her mum from behind whereby she closed her eyes momentarily.

"I hope you'll eat properly later", Mrs. Rose said with concern in her voice and eyed her daughter shortly, before she turned to the pot again, in which she began to stir with an oversized spoon.

"Yeah, please don't worry, everything's alright", Marley reassured her. "By the way I'm going to be at home quite late, because I have Glee today."

"Where do you rehearse today?"

"At Kitty's." Marley frowned at the thought. Since the Glee club didn't have any classroom to rehearse anymore, they always went to a member's house. Marley wasn't even sure if Kitty would let her anyways.

"Well, I gotta go now."

"Okay, have a lot of fun today", Mrs. Rose replied and stroked her daughter's hair shortly, but lovingly. "I love you."

"Love you too, mum."

At late noon Marley was standing in front of Kitty's front door. She lived in a house with white bricks and a small veranda. The house wasn't that big and luxurious like Marley had imagined, but still a whole lot bigger than her own. "Welcome" was written on the doormat and luminous stars hung in the windows of the ground floor. Everything seemed very inviting, much to Marley's astonishment.

She pressed the doorbell hesitantly and not long after Kitty already opened the door.

"Do not touch anything", Kitty said and disappeared inside the house again.

Marley rolled her eyes and entered. Fortunately she wasn't the first person to be here. Brittany, Sam and Finn already sat in the living room next to a small fire place. On the table someone had placed a big teapot and a plate with Christmas cookies.

Marley was more and more surprised. All that didn't match the image she had of Kitty.

The others arrived shortly after and the rehearsal was a lot of fun. Even if Marley had to stand for the whole time – since she didn't want to get kicked out – it was a light-hearted early evening after all.

After one and a half hours they all headed home and Marley felt strangely gloomy, as she had to step into the outside world again.

When she just had been walking for two minutes, she suddenly noticed that her phone wasn't in her pocket anymore.

Damn it, she had taken it out earlier and left it on the table.

So she made her way back and was standing in front of Kitty's front door once again. She ringed and again Kitty opened the door.

"What do you want?" Kitty asked and surveyed her derogatory.

Marley swallowed, but tried to seem composed. "I think I forgot my phone here, can you please give it back to me?"

"You mean this one?" Kitty asked and suddenly held her phone which was tiny and rather shabby, Marley had to admit.

"Hard to believe you can still buy something like this nowadays" Kitty said with a disgusted look before she handed it to Marley. "Be glad I have my nice day today, otherwise you would've seen it never again. And now get lost from here, I really have enough of you for today.

Marley took the phone and avoided to look at Kitty. Then she turned to go away.

Suddenly however, she stopped and turned towards Kitty again. This time she looked into her eyes directly and for the first time for weeks, she didn't felt the urge to immediately avert her gaze.

"Why do you hate me so much?" she asked in a low voice while tiny snowflakes began to settle into the fibers of her hat.

For a short moment Kitty stared at her in honest astonishment and there was nothing left of her arrogant presence.

"I don't hate you."


	3. Crazily Looking Only At You

**_A/N: Thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites so far, keep it up. :) I like the chapter, I hope you do too. _  
**

**_Today's song is Crazily Looking Only At You by FT Island (my favorite group)_**

**Chapter 3 – Crazily Looking Only At You**

For a fraction of a second a startled Kitty stared into Marley's widening eyes, before she slammed the door shut with a bang. She leaned her back against it and in- and exhaled deeply. She wanted to tear open the door again and to yell at Marley that she indeed did hate her. However, she couldn't bring herself to look at her again now.

Of course she hated Marley! More than she hated most others. What the heck had she been thinking?

But that was the actual problem. She hadn't been thinking. She usually considered her words very well, spontaneous reactions and actions that were directed by intuition were actually not part of her nature. Yet, she just had uttered the words that had come to her mind. She was probably just overtired, she tried to find a reason for her behavior. Besides of that Marley Rose infuriated her so much that she drove her out of her mind.

Kitty clenched her fists and then pushed herself off the door to get comfortable on the living room couch. What she needed was distraction, she didn't want to waste a single thought on Marley anymore today.

Even if most people wouldn't assume it, Kitty loved reading books, preferably thought-provoking ones. Currently she read "Sputnik Sweetheart" by Haruki Murakami, a book in which the characters were just orbiting around each other, but never came _really_ close and in which their distance seemed impenetrably.

"Am I like that as well?" Kitty wondered. "Will I always be alone circulating around myself? Without a hold, absorbed in my own world? I hope not."

In this moment she heard the front door opening. Her parents, who both worked as accountants, a rather boring job in Kitty's eyes, had come home.

Shortly afterwards her mother and her father, who didn't resemble her at all, already entered the living room.

"Hey, Kitty-darling" her mother said and sat down next to her on the couch. "How are you", she asked while stroking Kitty's hand.

"I'm okay, but pretty tired", Kitty replied.

"Then you better go to bed early today", she heard her father saying who had begun to cook coffee in the adjacent kitchen.

"I hope you didn't cause any trouble in school again." Mrs. Wilde eyed Kitty with a worried expression.

Kitty rolled her eyes and pushed aside the blanket to be able to get up from the sofa.

"I tried to control myself, Mum. I have to do some homework now", she said while leaving the room.

"Okay, but come downstairs for dinner later, I'm making your favorite salad."

"Of course, sounds good."

That night Kitty was haunted by horrible nightmares for the first time in a long while.

_A little blonde girl, about 6 years old and way too skinny for her age, sat screaming and crying in a corner of a dimmed room. Her hand was bleeding and her face was contorted with pain while tears were running down on it. From time to time, a tear or a drop of blood dripped on the floor, which was littered with garbage. On the other end of the room there was a big table standing in front of a lamp. Numerous laboratory utensils whose purpose was incomprehensible for the girl were arranged on the top. A small white pill fell off the table and rolled in the girl's direction. _

_Two figures, a man and a woman, both still pretty young, were bending over the table. The light coming from the front only revealed their silhouettes. _

_They ignored the girl's crying as if they wouldn't notice it. _

_Eventually her tears stopped flowing and she just gazed into space or at something no one but her could see. _

Then the images began to become blurry and Kitty, who had tossed around in her bed restlessly, slowly emerged back into reality. She squinted and looked at the illuminated display of her alarm clock. 3:26. Still more than three hours until she had to get up.

Why had this dream returned to her again? She had been spared from it for a long time. Something was wrong with her.

She closed her eyes wearily and moments later she dropped off to a deep dreamless sleep.

* * *

The images from her dream still lingered inside her the next morning, as Kitty strolled around the hallways with her head up high as always. Even if she seemed to be her usual boastful-self on the outside, her inside felt quite chaotic.

She tried to distract herself by throwing mean comments on random students passing by.

"Hey Frankenteen!", she called Finn, who was just stepping out of Principal Figgins' office and by calling him that she took up an offence she had learned from Sue.

"Kitty, you're lucky I still allow you to be in Glee-club, so don't screw it up", Finn responded, but Kitty had already rushed past him.

Shortly after, she entered the classroom of Mrs. Harris, who was her arts teacher. As usual the other students fell silent immediately and tried not to catch her eye.

Kitty smiled contently until her gaze dropped on Marley. She had completely forgotten that they were in the same class. Damn it.

Kitty's mood damped instantly, so that she gave vent to her anger by shoving Jake's pencils off the table on her way to her seat.

"Oops, I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention", she mockingly said to Jake who only stared at her angrily, but didn't respond. He probably considered himself something special, Kitty thought.

When Kitty sat down on her chair, she felt Marley's gaze resting on her, however, instead of shooting off a mean comment in her direction, she preferred to ignore her.

Then Mrs. Harris entered the room and started the lesson right away.

"Good morning", she greeted the students. "I hope you all have exercised diligently, since we will continue portrait drawing today, as you already know. In order to do this we have to change the order of seats first."

So the students began to move the tables aside and to arrange the chairs in a semicircle in the middle of the room. A scaffold was set up on front of every seat and in the semicircle's inside there was one single chair.

"That's where our model is going to sit", Mrs. Harris explained. "Today that's going to be our lovely Marley, because I think, it'll be the best thing for everyone not to let her draw."Mrs. Harris eyed Marley pityingly. Everyone knew that she had given up hope of Marley, which was honestly speaking very understandable. At least Marley's drawing skills always offered Kitty a good reason to make a mean comment.

Marley looked around guiltily, but was also obviously relieved and eventually sat down on the chair in the middle. The others took up positions as well and prepared their pencils and rubbers.

"Remember what we have learnt", Mrs. Harris said. "And pay attention to light and shade."

At first Kitty just stared at the white paper in front of her for a few minutes, until she could finally bring herself to raise her eyes and to survey Marley critically.

She had liked to draw Marley in a really ugly way, but her mark in arts was quite important to her, so she pulled herself together and set the pencil on the sheet. "I will capture my hate for her in this picture though", she thought.

Then she started drawing. Again and again she examined Marley exactly, her eyes, which were focused on a spot on the back wall, her curved eyebrows, the straight nose, the oval jaw-line, the lips, which were formed to a slight smile. Good thing, that Marley wasn't wearing her silly cap today, Kitty thought, as she began to draw Marley's hair, which was falling around her shoulders and framing her face.

Kitty was so deeply absorbed in her work, that she neither registered Mrs. Harris advice nor the chatter of her fellow students. Her hand moved the pencil almost on its own and her gaze dropped in regular intervals on her sheet and back on Marley.

"Mh, the eyes need more expression", Kitty thought while she regarded her work. Again she focused on Marley's eyes and started to rework what she had drawn so far. When she raised her eyes yet again, she suddenly realized that Marley was retuning her gaze directly. For how long had she been doing that already?

Kitty felt uneasy, but she continued unwaveringly. Every time she glanced up from now on the two girls looked at each other directly and at some point it didn't bother Kitty anymore. Let her stare as stupidly as she wanted, when Kitty had gotten her hands on her, she wouldn't dare to look at her again like that.

Finally she was done with the face and turned her attention to the background, so that her eyes didn't have to endure that offence anymore.

"Okay guys, come to an end", Mrs. Harris said after a while and pulled Kitty back into reality.

"Let me have a look then." Mrs. Harris walked around between the students and examined their results.

Marley, who was finally allowed to move again, listened to her comments with interest.

"Nice try, Borrison, but unfortunately I can recognize very little human in your work. Maybe you better try modern art."

"I can't rate stick men, Miller."

"Not bad, Puckerman, but what are all these hearts in the background supposed to stand for?" At these words an embarrassed expression spread on Marley's face and Kitty gave him an evil stare. What an idiot.

"Well Kitty, let me have a look." Mrs. Harris approached Kitty and bent forward a little to have a better view on her picture.

"Look at this…" she uttered after a few seconds of silence. Then she took the picture from the scaffold and held it up in front of her for everyone to see. "THESE are emotions", she said to her students.

"Negative emotions", Kitty stated. She didn't want to give any wrong impression. "Actually I wanted to-"

"No, much more than that!" Mrs. Harris interrupted her. "You can see the negative emotions in her background, these dark, rough strokes. Yet, in the center, there's the contrast. Guys, do you see how soft the features of Marley's face suddenly are? Kitty created a marvelous contrast here. In a world full of negative emotions Marley is the only salvation, warmth and hope - every art theorist would agree with me on that."

"Well, actually I just see a face with a few strokes around it", Jake said. Like the rest of the class he didn't have any interest in analyzing some random pictures, much in contrast to his teacher.

Kitty scowled at Mrs. Harris and for the first time she was happy to hear one of Jake's comments. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Marley looking at her portrait in surprise and she seemed somewhat happy. Kitty started boiling inside. If Mrs. Harris wasn't going to shut up now, she would…

"No, Jake", Mrs. Harris continued". These aren't just strokes. THIS is love!"


	4. Love It, Hate It

**_A/N: My laptop isn't working properly itm, so I hope I can keep up the regular updates...Anyway I'm trying my best. :) Today's song is by FT Island again, song titel is the same as chapter titel. ;) _  
**

**Chapter 4 – Love It, Hate It**

With a startled expression Marley stared back and forth between the portrait, Mrs. Harris and Kitty.

Her teacher must have gone completely insane by now. Kitty couldn't even develop friendly feelings for Marley, not to mention love – no matter of which kind. Still, Marley had to admit that something positive was radiating from Kitty's picture. It was by no means perfect, the nose had turned out a little unsymmetrical and the shading wasn't always that realistic.

Despite everything one could clearly recognize Marley's face in the picture and she felt strangely touched by the way Kitty had portrayed her.

Kitty, who had been speechless for a few seconds, glanced at Mrs. Harris in the most evil way Marley had ever seen her, while their fellow students had lapsed into a startled and at the same time expectant silence.

"You must have a screw loose somewhere!" Kitty eventually blurted out and before Mrs. Harris could respond, Kitty yanked the sketch block from her hand.

"And stop staring like a bunch of fucking retards!" she snapped at the students. Then she stormed to the door with her head read from anger and while exiting she tossed the picture into the bin.

Again silence spread among the students, till Mrs. Harris finally said: "The class is over for today, you can leave now."

A few hours later Marley was standing in front of her locker and took the books she wouldn't need anymore today out of her backpack. Strangely Kitty was constantly on her mind. Yesterday Kitty had told her that she did not hate her, although Marley had been utterly convinced about that. But maybe everything was one of Kitty's mean plans again, she thought. She just wasn't able to see through Kitty. She had tried to read her face when Kitty had been forced to look at her during arts class, but even that didn't really work out.

Marley had been surprised that Kitty had regarded her without any malice or any noticeable ulterior motive; when they had looked at each other, Marley had the feeling of seeing a part of the real Kitty for the first time. If there existed a real Kitty.

Marley slammed the door of her locker shut and startled when suddenly Jake's face appeared behind it.

"Sorry", Jake excused as he noticed her look of reproach. Then a grin returned to his face. "Kitty has just set up a new slushy-record, you should've seen that. I've never experienced her that angry, which is hard if you've known her longer. You seem to have upset her quite a bit."

"Please let's not talk about Kitty anymore, okay?" Marley's thoughts were already circulating enough around her.

"Okay, new topic", Jake said. "Are you free on Friday evening? We could go to Breadstix or something like that." He eagerly looked at Marley and waited for her to respond.

"Jake", Marley began and tried to keep her sigh quiet. "If you want, we can meet from time to time, but as friends, okay?"

"Friends?" Jake seemed a little confused.

"Friends", Marley repeated. "Not-in-any-way-romantically-involved-people-friends." Marley mentally rolled her eyes, but she had planned on clearing the matter up. After all she now had the opportunity to at least solve one of her two problems, the second one being Ryder.

"Oh", was the only thing Jake said and Marley felt a little guilty, because she had disappointed him.

"And what about Ryder?" Jake asked with a slightly angry tone in his voice. "Are you two dating now, or what?"

"No, I'm going to tell him the same as I just told you", Marley answered and hoped that he would believe her.

Jake was silent for a while and stared at his feet. "I'll think about it", he said eventually. "About being friends." Then he turned around and Marley looked at him guiltily. She didn't want to hurt anybody, but even if she tried, she could never please everyone, so for a change she did, which was best for herself. And that was definitely not a romantic relationship with Jake or Ryder.

However, what exactly it was, she didn't know either.

* * *

In the afternoon the Glee-club was allowed to rehearse at the auditorium exceptionally, whereof Sue Sylvester luckily didn't know anything yet. Otherwise it would have been a rather unpleasant afternoon for everyone.

As far as Marley could assess, Kitty had calmed down to some extent, even if she did not deign to look at her. Marley mentally prepared herself for a difficult time.

Since holidays were approaching they sang a few Christmas songs today. Fortunately Kitty was standing far away from her for the whole time.

"Marley, Kitty, could you please help me tidy up here?" Finn asked at the end of the rehearsal. Most of the others had already disappeared to avoid the very same question.

Kitty grumbled something to herself, but spared out a snappy comment, because otherwise she had to leave the club for good.

So Marley and Kitty helped Finn putting away the decoration and sweeping the stage, since they wanted to leave as few traces as possible.

"Thanks, girls", Finn said and already made his way out.

Kitty also turned for leaving, but Marley suddenly felt the urge to talk to her.

"Kitty, I-", she began, but Kitty interrupted her immediately.

"Do not think there's any truth in Mrs. Harris' blather! I don't like you and I love you not in the least! That is the most absurd thing I've ever heard!"

Marley just stood there and tried to endure the flood of words. She actually didn't know what to talk about with Kitty, but now it didn't matter anyways.

"And anyway, who do you think you are, staring at me stupidly like that, I can't remember I gave you permission to do so." Kitty's voice had adopted a quite angry intonation and a high volume, which worried Marley a little.

On the other hand, Marley thought, their relationship couldn't become worse anyhow, so she didn't even try to calm Kitty, which probably wouldn't have worked out.

"Oh and my portrait looked horrible", Kitty continued. "No surprise, if the model looks horrible as well. Mrs. Harris is insane anyways. I may like girls, but I'd never like someone like you!"

In the very same moment Kitty put her hand over her mouth and a shocked expression spread over her face.

"You…you like girls?" Marley asked blankly. "But you dated Jake…"

"Only because I didn't want you to have him", Kitty grumbled contritely. For the moment she seemed really helpless. Was this another part of the real Kitty? But the she seemed to have recovered herself and surveyed Marley in her typical arrogant manner.

"That's just between the two of us, you got that? If you tell anybody about it, you're dead."

Marley swallowed and nodded. "But…why would it be such a problem, if someone knew about it?" she asked in a low voice.

"It's no one's business and especially not yours!, Kitty snapped at her. The she turned around and rushed out of the auditorium.

Merely continued standing perplexedly on the stage for a while and tried to organize her thoughts. Kitty was into girls? She never would've expected that, but who would have that? But why did she react so aggressive to the topic?

Maybe Kitty feels insecure, Marley considered. And with this, for the first time, Marley had discovered one of Kitty's weak points.

That was a weird day, she thought and finally went on her way home.


	5. Run

**_A/N: The next two chapters will focus more on the characters' individual development, before the real action is going to start. ;) The song for this chapter is Run by Epik High. Please review and let me know what you think. thanks! :)_  
**

**Chapter 5 – Run**

Kitty awoke. She blinked a few times until she realized that she was lying in her bed at home. She sat up slowly, ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed her eyes. It was the weekend before Christmas. School was over for now and finally Kitty didn't have to come across Marley every day.

At the thought of Marley Kitty let out an angry sound. How could she be so stupid to tell her such a thing? She felt carried back to the day she told her that she didn't hate her. Once again she had spoken without thinking. Unfortunately that went wrong every time, Kitty thought furiously.

And yet, she had actually just told the truth. She was more into girls and it wasn't a big deal for her. She had known this for a long time and even told her parents about it and they had always supported her. However, she didn't want anybody to know that at school. The idea that someone could use it as a reason to make fun of her or to show her up fulfilled her with panic fear. For her nothing was worse than that thought that someone could influence or control her.

She wanted to be the one who had control, which was usually quite easy for her. Only when it came to Marley Rose, her success had been limited yet. On top of it she was chased by her even in her dreams.

And now Marley did know more about her than everybody else at school. "I should make up a way to keep her silent", Kitty thought, "better without having to kill her."

Then she got up, went to the bathroom and turned the water up as cold as possible to wash her face. That was better.

She went to the kitchen and set down by her mother, who sat alone at the breakfast table, because her father had already left in order to bring the car to the workshop.

Mrs. Wilde looked up from her newspaper and smiled at Kitty. "Good morning, sweetie."

"Morning, Mum", Kitty said and poured cornflakes and milk into a bowl. She picked at her food for a few minutes without saying a word, but barely ate something.

"Kitty, everything alright?" her mother asked worriedly. "You don't look exactly healthy."

"Everything alright", Kitty mumbled and demonstratively put a spoonful of cornflakes in her mouth.

"Kitty, I know you. What is your problem?" Mrs. Wilde laid the newspaper aside and stroked Kitty's arm.

Kitty sighed, dropped the spoon into the bowl and looked at her mother. "Lately I have rather bad dreams again. I don't know why and I can't do anything about it. I'm starting to get afraid of sleeping."

"Oh Kitty", Mrs. Wilde regarded her compassionately, "I hoped you had overcome that, but some memories will obviously never fade. I know you don't want to hear that, but you have to learn to live with them. The more you suppress your problems, the worse they'll come back to you one day."

"I know, I know", Kitty grumbled, "Dr. Brooks always told me so, too."

"Shall I make an appointment for you? Maybe you need some professional help again?"

"No Mum, talking to you is really enough for me". There was no one Kitty trusted more than her mother and of course also her father, since they were the ones who had given her a new life and she would be always thankful for that. She could do well without the treatment of Dr. Brooks, the stupid psycho therapist. He should in fact get some help himself.

"Maybe you should also talk to your friends more about your problems, it might help you as well", her mother suggested.

"Which friends?!" Kitty answered slightly irritated. "I may be popular and respected, but there are no people I could call my friends."

"And what about your Glee-club?"

"Not them", Kitty put her off. "They are just a bunch of idiots."

"Then why did you even join them at all?" Mrs. Wild asked and a mischievous grin spread on her face, which couldn't mean anything good for Kitty. "It's not because of a girl, is it?"

"Whaaat?! No, of course not!"Kitty tried to stop her, still, she couldn't prevent herself from blushing. "There's no one I like, only someone I can't stand at all!"

"And who is it?" Mrs. Wilde looked at her daughter eagerly, however, she didn't seem to take her that serious. She knew her daughter.

"Marley Rose", Kitty uttered between clenched teeth. "You won't believe how awful she is. The worst thing about her are her puppy eyes, I don't know how she does it, but with that look on her face, she can make anybody doing anything for her. I can't understand how Ryder and Jake can be so stupid to fall for it." Now Kitty took her spoon again and began to shovel cornflakes into her moth like crazy. The thought of Marley had made her hungry again.

"Jake. Isn't he the boy you dated for a short while…even though you're not into boys at all…?" her mother asked and leaned back.

"Well, this was just because I didn't want Marley to be with him. I only wanted to tease her a little", Kitty said with her mouth full. "Please don't be mad at me, I haven't been called into Principal Figgins' office for two month already."

Mrs. Wilde surveyed her cornflakes eating daughter thoughtfully for a while, then she leaned forward again and fixed a dark bang that had fallen over her face. "Kitty…", she began and Kitty, who sensed the motherly-concerned undertone in her voice, slowly lowered the full spoon and prepared herself for something unpleasant. She also avoided eye contact and focused on the leftovers in her bowl.

"You sound like an elementary schoolboy, who is teasing the girl he's in love with, just to get her attention."

"Mum!", Kitty protested and she felt her face reddening even more. "Are you out of your mind?! You're even worse than Mrs. Harris! Why all of sudden does everyone think I'm in love with Marley? I am definitely NOT!" Kitty jumped to her feet and almost knocked her chair down. As usual she rushed out of the room.

"Just think about it!" she heard her mother calling behind her, then she had already gotten up the stairs to her room and dropped on her bed letting out a frustrated sound.

"Have they all gone completely insane by now?", she thought. "I'm not in love with Marley, this is impossible, if you detest someone that much. But why am I thinking about her all the time then? It's probably all Marley's fault anyways, who has given her permission to wander around in my head?"

"Get lost!", she shouted into the silence in her room. "You have no business here!" Yet, it didn't work out. Marley's face was indelible etched in her mind and Kitty couldn't do anything about it.

_I'm not in love with her, I'm not in love with her, I'm not in love with her…_she repeated in an infinite loop in her head. _I'm not in love with her, I'm not in love with her, maybe I am – damn it. _

In the evening Kitty had calmed down a little and had managed to push the thoughts of a certain brunette aside. Repressing was one of her strong points.

Kitty stepped out of the house to check the mail and discovered a pale yellow envelope with her name on it in the mail box. She opened it curiously: _Invitation – The Glee New Year's Eve Party _was written on it.

"Forget it", Kitty said to the card and disappeared into the house. She had definitely enough of Glee-clubs and their members for this year.


	6. Because I Don't Know How To Love

**_A/N: Merry Christmas, everybody! Please review or share or whatever. :P_  
**

**Chapter 6 – Because I don't know how to love**

Marley sighed softly while she watched her mother through the door crack. It was already late in the evening on the last day of Christmas. Mrs. Rose was sitting on the couch and lost in thought she regarded the Christmas tree, which bathed the room in a dim light. As every year she was waiting. She was waiting for the man who had left her and Marley exactly twelve years ago on Christmas. He had stepped out the door and never came back. Still, she waited on that exact same place until late night every year.

Marley knew she would wait to no avail. She felt sad to see her mother like that, however, she didn't want that man who was supposed to be her father to ever return. She never ever wanted to see him again.

Neither Marley nor her mother knew why he had abandoned them. Marley had only been four years old then, but as far as she could remember they had always been happy. Sometimes she wondered how her life would have been, if all that wouldn't have happened. Maybe she wouldn't constantly feel the need to please everybody, because she was often persuaded by the idea that possibly she could have been the reason for him to leave and so she tried to lessen her feelings of guilt otherwise.

She continued standing in front of the door for a while until she eventually couldn't bear it anymore. On tiptoe she sneaked upstairs in her room and collapsed backwards into her bed. For a while she just stared at the ceiling without thinking about anything in particular. Then suddenly yesterday's events came to her mind.

Someone rang the doorbell on her front door and Marley opened it without knowing who could possibly visit her home on Christmas.

Unfortunately it was Ryder, who smiled at her and handed her a present. "Merry Christmas", he said. "I hope you'll like it."

"Ryder…" Marley felt guilty once again. Firstly she didn't have a present for him and secondly she hadn't managed to make it clear to him yet that she had no interest in him. At least not in the way he was probably hoping for. "Th-thank you…, but I don't have anything for you…I'm sorry", she tried to apologize.

"I don't mind", Ryder responded. "I only wanted to do something nice for you."

Marley opened the box, which he had given her and found a scarf with colored stripes, which she actually liked. "Wow…thanks", she said. "Is it hand-knitted?"

"Yeah, but I didn't do it." Ryder scratched his head a little sheepishly. "My grandma did. I hope you like it anyway."

Now Marley was feeling even guiltier, not just towards Ryder, but also towards his grandma, who she didn't even know at all. She definitely should have ended all this earlier.

"I like it", Marley said. Ryder smiled and was just about to answer, but Marley interrupted him. "Look…I really appreciate what you're doing, but I can't accept this present." She averted her gaze and focused on the floor while holding out the box to him.

"What? Why?" Ryder asked in surprise, but made no move to reach for the box.

"I know what you expect from me", Marley said softly, "but I can only disappoint you. I like being friends with you, but that's all I can be to you. I hope you can understand me." She slowly rose her head again and looked at Ryder, who seemed visibly taken aback. Just like Jake he remained silent for a while and he didn't pay attention to the box which Marley was still holding out to him.

"Please keep the scarf", he said eventually. "It will surely look great on you. See you then." With that said he turned around and walked down the small path, which lead to the street.

Marley regarded him sadly, however, she knew she had done the right thing.

The scarf was left untouched in its box in Marley's room. At the moment she didn't have the heart to wear it. She would think of Ryder's disappointed face the whole time.

Love only brought problems with it, she thought. Kitty certainly had her problems as well. It was probably not that easy to pretend to be someone else all the time. Marley wondered if Kitty was falling for somebody. Obviously not for her, that was for sure.

Marley sighed and pulled the blanket over her body. "Maybe I should care about myself first. I don't know how it feels to be in love at all. I keep rejecting people, but in fact I don't have the slightest idea how much I'm hurting them. It's probably better I don't have to endure that.

The vibrating of her phone brought her back into reality. Marley reached over and grabbed it. She narrowed her eyes when the bright display lit up in the dark.

A text message from Unique.

"You're going to go to the New Year's Eve party, right?"

"Of course, the holidays are way too boring, I need a change", Marley typed back.

"Same here."

"Unique? Can I ask you something?"

"Whatever you want."

"Do you think Kitty could be in love with me?"

"Why do you think so? Are you out of your mind?!"

"Just kidding."

* * *

"Mum, when was the first time you were in love?" Marley asked her mother as they had breakfast together the next morning. Mrs. Rose looked quite tired, presumably she had barely slept last night. As every year.

She put a finger on her chin and thought about it. "Mmh, it was when I was fifteen. There was a boy from the neighborhood, a really nice guy, but I've never been brave enough to tell him about my feelings." At the memory she giggled softly. "I've always been pretty shy. Why do you want to know that anyways? Are you in love?" Her mother eyed Marley in a playful suspicious way and put on her police interrogation stare, which always made Marley laugh.

"I don't think so, Mum", she answered and put jam on a toast. "How did you feel back then?", she asked further.

"Well, how you feel when you're in love, you know. I always wanted to be near him, I wanted him to like me and every time I looked at him my heart became warm. You have all those kind of feelings which seemed way too cheesy to you before."

Thoughtfully Marley took a bite from her toast, of which she now had to eat at least tree every morning, so that her mother wouldn't have to start worrying about her again.

"I'm almost seventeen already", she stated eventually. "Still, I can't really imagine what you've just told me. Maybe I'm not able to feel more than friendship for others? "

Mrs. Rose smiled and looked at her daughter fondly. "Marley, I'm sure the right person will cross your path sometime. It can happen sooner than you might think. And believe me, that someone has to consider themselves lucky to be loved by you."

"You really think so?" Marley smiled bashfully.

"Of course, darling."

"I love you the most anyways, Mum."

"I should hope so too. And now finish your toast, otherwise we're going to sit here till tomorrow."

_**A/N2: I don't know if anyone actually cares about the chapter titles, but I don't mind anyways. ;) The group which belongs to this title is once again my beloved FT Island. **_


	7. Starlit Night

**_A/N: This chapter is quite long, but better don't get used to it. ;) I hope you like it and continue reading next year. The song for this chapter is Starlit Night by CN Blue. And just for the record: Reviews are always appreciated. :)_  
**

**Chapter 7 – Starlit Night**

„Why am I even here?" Kitty said to herself, as she was standing in front of Artie's driveway in the evening. She let out a resigned sigh and her white breath rose into the starry night. Actually she knew exactly why she was here. It was New Year's Eve and Kitty had a reason for coming all the way here to this party which would probably end in a failure. Okay, she had to admit, that nobody else had invited her to another party.

Anyways, Kitty was here to clarify something. Namely that she wasn't in love with Marley Rose, which was in Kitty's opinion completely impossible, no matter what other people told her. Still, what she needed was a last reassurance, a reason to hate Marley once and for all.

Kitty pulled out her little pocket mirror to check her appearance in the street lamp's light one last time. For a change she wore her hair loose today. Additionally she had applied some more make-up than usual, but also hadn't exaggerated and wore tight jeans and a thick, yet stylish jersey under her winter jacket. Kitty was satisfied, even if she hadn't made a great effort. Regarding the people she would hang out with today, she could've also showed up in her pajamas. She'd still look the best.

Kitty walked up the path to Artie's front door, which had a wheelchair ramp instead of stairs in front of it. Artie and his parents lived in a large bungalow, so that there weren't too many barriers. Kitty had to admit, that the house looked really nice.

She rang the doorbell and soon after Artie opened the door. Music and laughter came from inside.

"I'm late", Kitty said without an apology.

"Hey Kitty", Artie welcomed her in surprise. "I didn't thought you'd come at all."

"I can leave if you don't want me here!" Kitty snapped at him angrily.

"No, I'm glad you're here. Really." Artie smiled and rolled aside to let her into the house.

Kitty gulped and suddenly she felt awkward. She distorted her lips into an implied smile which rather ended up in a grimace and entered.

"You can hang up your jacket here", Artie said and pointed at a row of wardrobe pegs on the wall, on which Kitty discovered also Marley's stupid hat. Why was she always running around wearing that thing? Kitty put her jacket on the peg which was the furthest from Marley's stuff and followed Artie into the living room.

Everyone from Glee was there. Okay, everyone but Mr. Shuester, but there was no one who wanted him to come. There were just two people from the old-age-generation, how Kitty called them in secret: Finn and Puck. The others were probably celebrating much cooler parties somewhere far away from Lima.

The living room was quite big. There was a huge tree-piece suite in the middle of the room and a table with mountains of food and beverages, which were mostly non-alcoholic. Kitty rolled her eyes. Then she saw a middle-aged woman, who was putting a tablet of diced cheese down on the table. A party with parents? Kitty was lacking of strength to roll her eyes again.

She averted her gaze quickly and took another look around. She needed an overview of the situation. Sam and Brittany were sitting on the couch. They didn't just look like siblings, they probably were, at least they shared the same stupidity. They were laughing about some joke only they understood, while Blaine and Tina, who were sitting opposite to them, gave each other a puzzled look. Sugar was stretching out in an indecent position on the accompanying armchair, which she didn't seem to realize since she was occupied with her iPhone and from time to time she let out a soft giggle.

Finn, Puck and Jake were standing in front of the big stereo, which was playing some song by Lady Gaga (what else at a Glee-club party?), and looked through Artie's CD collection to set the repertory for the next hours. Ryder and Joe were sitting on the floor next to the lavishly decorated Christmas tree and examined Artie's Christmas presents. Joe was just drawing out a plaid sweater vest from one of the shiny bags and showed Artie a thump up. Such losers, Kitty thought and watched Unique – styled in incredibly bad taste – who was creeping around the buffet.

Now there was only one person missing...

"Who wants chilled drinks?!" Marley called and entered the room through a slide door, which lead outside. In her hand she held two bottles of beer and a bottle of coke.

"Save your stupid grin", Kitty thought and narrowed her eyes. "Today I'm going to prove that I don't feel even the slightest trace of love for you. Better prepare yourself. Just give me one reason and I'll show you what I'm capable of. This is what happens to people who chase me in my thoughts without permission and embarrass me in front of others. You'll see, I-"

"Want some cheese?"

Kitty startled and stared right at another plate of cheese, which Mrs. Abrams held out to her.

"N-no, thanks", Kitty stuttered blankly.

"Oh, hey Kitty!" Finn called out to her.

"Hey Kitty!", the others greeted her as well. Apparently they had finally noticed that Kitty had showed up.

"Hi." Kitty put on one of her fake smiles and tried to win back her composure. Then she walked over to the couch and got seated next to Blaine, but she paid attention to keep her distance.

The day couldn't get any worse.

The evening proceeded and Kitty was almost bored to death. Now and then she would get herself something to eat from the buffet, but she made sure to avoid the cheese. Marley stayed away from her for the whole time and seemed to enjoy herself. She, Unique, Finn and Jake were sitting in a corner of the room chatting and joking around.

Kitty was annoyed that Marley more or less ignored her and thought about possibilities how she could best get revenge for that.

"Alright, who wants to play a game!?" Puck called when he entered the room from outside holding a bottle of beer.

"Me!", everyone but Kitty answered. She never should have come here.

Therefore everyone provided themselves with something to eat and then they all squashed on the couch set on which Kitty had been sitting the whole time. To be on the save side Kitty stretched out her elbows, so that nobody would dare to come too close to her. Marley took a seat across from her and glanced at her while sitting down. For a fraction of a second her usual positive vibes and her smile had vanished from her face and were replaced by a sad and worried expression. The next moment she was back to normal again and Kitty wondered whether she hadn't just imagined it.

"Well, it's actually not a real game, but it's definitely going to be fun though", Puck began to explain. "Everyone of you is going to get two pieces of paper on which you jot down a question you have always wanted to ask somebody here. Then we put them all in this box and everyone has to choose two papers and answer the questions, got it? Everything is allowed", he added and winked suggestive.

"I don't want to know anything about anyone here", Kitty thought irritably. "However, maybe Marley will present me a good reason to hate her, so it's probably not the worst idea if I participate."

Puck gave everyone two small pieces of paper and Kitty started jotting down her questions. In doing so she paid special attention that Unique, who was sitting next to her, couldn't read them.

"Okay, let's start", Puck said after a while and passed the box around, so that everyone could throw in their notes. "Who wants to start?"

"Me, me!", Brittany shouted enthusiastically and raised her hand up high. She pulled out a note and stared at it for a few seconds. Then she held it out to Sam, who gave her a quizzical look. "Can you read it out for me? I still haven't managed to memorize the whole alphabet."

"When were you in love for the first time and with whom?" Sam read and then waited expectantly.

"That's an easy one", Brittany said. "In my freshmen year in high school, when I saw Lord Tubbington for the first time at the animal shelter. It was love at first sight." She smiled and looked around. Then she noticed Sam's disappointed expression. "Sorry, Sam."

"Next one", Puck said. "Now it's my turn". He let his finger rotate a few times over the box until he finally chose a paper. "What is the most embarrassing situation you've ever experienced?" He laughed and took a sip from his beer bottle. "Okay, listen. When I worked in Hollywood, one day a woman came across me and I thought 'Wow, that's Sophia Loren'. Since I wanted to use every chance to make it to the top, I just made a pass at her."

"But you didn't do you-know-what?", Artie asked and adjusted his glasses.

"Of course we did! And afterwards I asked her if she'd do me a little favor, you know regarding a job and stuff and then it turned out she was just a member of the cleaning squad. Unfortunately the story got around pretty fast and suddenly everyone in the studio knew about it. That was quite embarrassing. "

"But did she really look like Sophia Loren?", Blaine asked.

"Well, she was at least old and had the same haircut."

Kitty grimaced in disgust and tried to banish the images his story had aroused from her mind.

"Enough of that", Finn laughed and handed the box to Artie. "Artie, it's your turn."

"Which member of Glee-club would be exactly your type?" Artie read out loud. "Oh", he said and smiled sheepishly. "If I leave Tina and Brittany out, then maybe…Marley. But just in general, you don't have to raise hopes, Marley." He smiled and winked at Marley, who also smiled a little awkwardly, although she seemed to be delighted by his answer. "Alright, I think I'll get over it", she joked.

Kitty observed the situation with great disapproval. What was it that Marley had, that made everyone like her so much? She was angry at Artie, because she was already sick of Jake and Ryder's attempts to win Marley over.

"Kitty, you want to continue?", Finn suggested, because he had apparently noticed Kitty's discontented expression and wanted to prevent trouble.

"If I have to", Kitty grunted and took a paper.

"Which members would make a weird couple?", she read.

She looked around for a while, eyed everybody with a disparaging stare and finally responded: "Every combination that includes Joe Heart. I don't want to say anything more about that issue."

"You will eventually find your way to God, I'll pray for you", Joe said.

"I was just being honest."

"Damn it, I should've named Marley!", Kitty thought a moment later. "How could I forget?" She shook her head slightly and wondered about herself.

Now it was Marley's turn.

"What would you do with one million dollars?"

"Very simple", Marley said. "I'd give everything to my mum. She'd deserve it, because she cares for me every day and would cook delicious stuff for us with all the money. We could as well finally pay off the house and buy a huge Christmas tree next year." She smiled at the thought.

Why was everything she said so damn cute? Kitty would never find a decent reason to hate her, if she went on like that.

The following questions were all rather boring. Blaine chose Unique's outfit for the best of the evening and Sam answered that Brittany was the most attractive person in the room. There was no need to mention the rest, it was just not worth it.

It was Jake's turn. "Name a reason for hating Marley Rose." Immediately all heads turned towards Kitty and she was eyed by angry stares. "Kitty, what's your problem?!", Jake shouted and crumpled the paper in his fist. "There's no reason in the world to hate her! Nobody is allowed to talk like that about my…friend!" He glanced at Marley, who looked at him in relief.

"Alright, calm your tits, I was just joking", Kitty said. "After all, that question wasn't as boring as yours."

The others kept staring at her crossly for a while, then they proceeded with their game. They obviously preferred to ignore her.

After some time it was Marley's turn again. "What was the biggest mistake you ever made?" was the question she had to answer. She sighed and looked down on her knees. "My biggest mistake was that I've been so stupid to develop an eating-disorder. I wish it would've never happened."

Once again all heads were turned in Kitty's direction, this time their stares were even more angry and reproachful. Kitty swallowed and wasn't able to hold their gazes, which rarely happened to her. Instead her gaze wandered over to Marley, who was looking at her through sad eyes. Kitty suddenly felt incredibly sick and quickly focused on a spot on the floor. In spite of it all she couldn't bring herself to say something, so she remained resolutely silent until Finn finally relieved the tension, which was hovering in the room, by passing the box to Tina.

Kitty barely noticed anything the next few minutes. She was still looking at the floor and tried to fight back the feelings of guilt which were sweeping across her with all her strength. But she wasn't quite successful.

Then Unique suddenly tapped her on the shoulder and handed her the box without saying a word. "Fortunately, that's the last silly question", Kitty thought and took out a paper.

"Your earliest childhood memory?", she read out loud. She couldn't remember…could she? Oh no, not now! Kitty's eyes widened in terror and she tried to struggle against the images which were beginning to take over her mind.

_Kitty climbed down the house's dusty stairway. Every step caused an ugly creak. She went into the tiny kitchen. A cold light radiated from the single light bulb on the ceiling. Garbage lay on the floor, the counter was piled up with leftovers, which had partially already begun to get moldy. Searching for something eatable she opened the fridge, whose handle she could only just reach at the age of four. When she had finally managed to open the door, she only found a huge amount of boxes of which she knew she wasn't allowed to touch them and one lonely bottle of water, which lay in the top shelf, which she wasn't able to reach. Still, she was so hungry. Where were her parents? _

_They were certainly in the room with all the equipment whose function she wasn't able to grasp. She slowly snuck across the hallway and listened at the door. She heard hushed voices coming from inside. They belonged to her parents and some other man she didn't know. Cautiously she brought down the handle and peered into the room, which was illuminated poorly. _

"_Mummy?!", she cried faintly. "I'm hungry…"_

"_You're annoying!", the strange man shouted angrily and looked up from his work. In his hand he held an odd glass jar which was filled with a liquid which you mustn't drink, as Kitty knew. "Get her out of here", he said. _

_Kitty's mother came to the door and eyed her disparagingly. "Get lost!", she said free of emotion. _

"_But Mummy, I-", Kitty tried to protest, but the door was slammed shut right in front of her and she heard a key turning in its lock. Tears filled up her eyes and blurred her sight…_

Kitty's sight blurred while she kept staring into space with wide eyes. Her hands were trembling and clenched around the paper.

"Kitty, are you not feeling well?", she heard Marley's concerned voice.

What? What was Marley doing here? Where was she after all?

Kitty blinked and slowly started to realize where she was. "Oh", was the only thing she was able to utter. Everyone eyed her with a worried expression, especially Marley, as Kitty noticed.

"Oh God, for how long have I been sitting here like this?", Kitty wondered.

"I…I somehow got a headache", she lied and hoped the others would believe her.

"Would you like to go home?", Artie asked.

"No, it's okay, I just need a little break. Play on without me, I'm going to relax a little", Kitty answered mechanically. Her thoughts were still all churned up. When she looked into Marley's eyes she knew that the brunette didn't believe a single word of it. "She really knows too much about me", Kitty thought.

Fortunately they hesitantly began to pick up their game after a while, while Kitty was trying to hide the memory again in one of the rearmost corners of her brain, somewhere between old math formulas and her grandma's old country lore.

The evening proceeded and midnight was approaching. The game was over and everyone was back in a good mood, except for Kitty, who was still sitting at the same place as before. They left her alone and she was glad about it. Yet, it was bothering her that no one asked about her wellbeing. No surprise actually, none of them was her friend.

Again and again her gaze fell on Marley, she couldn't do anything about it. She still hadn't managed to disprove that she was interested in the brunette. It was time for her to take action. She had to pull herself together and get back to her old powerful self.

Right on cue Marley suddenly left the room through the side door that led outside. Kitty waited for a moment, then she followed her. Only a face-to-face confrontation could solve her problem.

When she stepped outside, a gust of cold air received her and she began to shiver, because she had left her jacket behind. A wide terrace, which merged into a nicely cultivated garden, stretched out in front of her. The night was starlit and a half moon and a small lamp on the wall were illuminating the scenery together.

Marley was sitting on a stair which was facing the garden and had tilted her head back to look at the stars. She wasn't wearing a warm jacket either, but she didn't seem to freeze.

Kitty hesitated for a moment and bit her lower lip, but then her feet finally moved and she approached slowly.

She stopped about one meter away from Marley and cleared her throat slightly to get her attention. Marley turned her head and looked at her in surprise. Her face seemed strangely pale in the moonlight, but her eyes were shining lively. Kitty suddenly felt oddly uneasy while she was waiting for Marley to say something. However, in the first place nothing happened, but they just kept staring at each other.

"What are you doing here?" Kitty eventually asked and her voice was much lower than she had intended.

"I just need some fresh air", Marley answered and looked up at the sky again.

Kitty didn't know what to say, she felt kind of helpless. For a few seconds she considered going back inside again, but that would've meant a defeat for her.

"I hope you have kept your mouth shut about…"

"Yeah, I did", Marley said. Then she added: "I'm not as mean as you."

That hit Kitty unexpectedly hard and she looked at the ground awkwardly. Why was it so easy for Marley to confuse her that much?

"May I sit down?" Kitty eventually asked hesitantly.

"I don't know", Marley replied without looking at her.

Nevertheless, Kitty sat down next to her on the stair and followed her gaze.

"I'm sorry", she whispered.

Marley finally faced her in surprise and Kitty looked right into her eyes.

"For what?"

"For making you feel uncomfortable in your body. I'm really sorry." What exactly did she say there?, she wondered. But she couldn't help it. Those words wanted to be said out loud and she decided to drift with their flow. She was tired of having to fight all the time.

"It's not your fault", Marley stated after a while. "I was just too weak and let people influence me. It was my own mistake."

"But if it wasn't for me, things never would've gone so far!", Kitty protested. She didn't want Marley to blame herself for everything again.

"Maybe."

They fell silent again for a while and watched the stars above them.

"You're shivering", Marley suddenly remarked.

Really? Kitty hadn't noticed anything.

"I'll quickly go inside and get our jackets", Marley said and was already on her way.

"What's wrong with me?", Kitty wondered. Why did she feel so vulnerable, yet so free like she hadn't in a long time?

_Because of Marley, silly girl!_, it echoed through her thoughts.

"Definitely not", she said to herself.

"What did you just say?" Kitty flinched and noticed Marley behind her, who handed her the jacket.

"Nothing", Kitty grunted and snatched it from her hand. She put it on and Marley sat down next to her again. Once again she was wearing that stupid hat which didn't look as stupid as usual on this evening.

"Why were you so upset before?" Marley asked.

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked back, although she knew exactly what Marley was getting at.

"You know exactly what I mean." Why did Marley know her that well?

"I told you I had a headache."

"I don't believe a single word of that." Kitty looked at Marley in surprise and met her concerned gaze. "I know when you are yourself and when you are not. Well, at least I have my assumptions."

"You can tell the difference?" Kitty asked blankly and without thinking.

"Ha!", Marley grinned. "I knew there was a difference. Thanks for confirming that for me."

"Damn it." Kitty tried to put on an angry expression, but it didn't quite work out. "Okay, maybe I lied, but I don't want to talk about it, got that?"

"It's not right, if you never talk about your problems", Marley stated.

"Then mind your own problems first", Kitty answered indignantly. "Sorry", she added when she noticed Marley's hurt expression.

"Alright, let's not talk about it", Marley eventually said. "But there's one last question I'd like to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"Why are you so nice to me today? So far you've only acted friendly towards me, if you could be even meaner to me in the end, but now it's somehow different."

"Well", Kitty began hesitantly." The truth was that she didn't even know the answer herself. "It's better if you make some mistakes now than ruining the new year with them."

"So you're seeing all this as a mistake." Marley surveyed her expectantly, maybe almost hopefully.

"No, I…", Kitty tried to find an explanation. Was there no one to help her?

"Girls, it's almost midnight!", someone suddenly called behind them. They turned around and spotted Unique standing at the door. "We're going down to the road now to set off the fireworks! Are you coming?" Then she went back into the house.

Kitty exhaled in relief and for the first time she felt something close to sympathy for Unique.

"You want to go with them?" , Marley asked.

"With these idiots? No thanks, there are better ways of starting into the new year."

"Don't talk like that", Marley criticized her, still she couldn't hide a faint smile.

"What about you? Don't you want to go?"

"No." Marley shook her head slightly and leaned back to have a better view of the sky.

"Why not?"

"I don't know."

Again they fell silent and for a while the world seemed to stand still. The stars seemed to be closer than ever and Kitty's head was suddenly free from all thoughts. For the moment she was simply herself. She knew, no, she _felt_, that this was the place she belonged to.

Then all of sudden a loud banging fulfilled the night and colorful sparks exploded in the sky.

Marley got up and reached out to Kitty to help her up.

Side by side they stood and watched more and more firework exploding above them.

Kitty hadn't let go of Marley's hand, the idea hadn't even crossed her mind. The warmth of her hand began to spread out in her whole body.

Kitty averted her gaze from the sky and looked at Marley. Whenever a fresh firework illuminated the setting her face lit up as well. She looked peaceful, innocent. Why had Kitty hurt her that much? All of sudden she couldn't grasp it anymore. Everything that had made sense before seemed to be wrong now.

Marley turned her head and returned Kitty's look. "Happy New Year", she said softly.

"Happy New Year."

_I'm in love with Marley Rose._

_Damn it. _


	8. First Step

**_A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! :) This is a quite short chapter, but I hope you'll like it anyways. The song is First Step by CNBlue. _  
**

**Chapter 8 – First Step**

Lost in thought Marley stood in front of her locker and surveyed her left hand. The hand which had held Kitty's hand just a few days ago. Somehow Kitty had left _something _inside her, although Marley didn't know exactly what that _something _was.

That evening Marley had been surprised that Kitty even talked to her, then she got suspicious, which was only understandable. However, she had eventually sensed that Kitty's intentions weren't evil at that time. Finally she had got to know the real Kitty or at least that part of her character which she usually hid from everybody else.

Since that day Marley neither had met her nor had she talked to her. The holidays had ended, school had started again and she was ready to return to her usual life.

Still, she couldn't keep her thoughts from revolving around Kitty again and again, so that she had yearned for the holidays to end with a certain gleeful anticipation. But what was she expecting at all? That Kitty would suddenly become the person she had been that night or that they would become friends for real? All of that wasn't about to happen for quite some time – Marley had to stay down to earth.

She screwed up her eyes and shook her head abruptly in a bid to get rid of the thoughts about Kitty for a while. She slammed the locker's door, took a deep breath and turned around.

Then she noticed that the students at her right began to make way for something or someone and suddenly everyone looked in another direction not daring to attract the attention of the person who passed them by.

Flanked by two football players once again and with an arrogant look Kitty strode along the hallway. For a change she seemed to stop herself from any nasty comments and Slushie-baths. Marley was one of the few people who dared to look directly at her. "What is she up to?", she thought. "I hope she doesn't want to mess with someone again."

With a searching glance Kitty proceeded until she eventually met Marley's gaze and a satisfied expression spread over her face. "Oh shit!", Marley thought, "she's looking for me!" She tried to prepare herself mentally against any kind of attack, be it a verbal or a physical one, but in secret she knew that all the preparation wouldn't do any good, since every attack of Kitty's had hit her with full impact so far.

When her fellow students noticed that Kitty stopped right in front of Marley, they turned away in relief and picked up their usual activities.

"Piss off!", Kitty told the two footballers and they obeyed like well-trained dogs.

Marley gulped and avoided Kitty's stare. She was sure Kitty wanted to get revenge for being so honest towards her.

"Marley Rose", Kitty said and stressed every single syllable. Her tone of voice bode ill.

"Will you kindly look at me when I talk to you?!", Kitty said angrily, when Marley had still fastened her eyes on the floor. She lifted her head hesitantly and looked at her. Surprisingly Kitty indeed eyed her critically and disparagingly, yet Marley couldn't distinguish anything of the spite which usually lay in her gaze.

"Marley Rose", Kitty repeated and tried to look down on her, which didn't work quite out due to their size difference, so that she looked rather ridiculous, but of course Marley didn't dare laughing, Kitty's voice sounded too intimidating.

"You and me have an appointment", she said.

"E-excuse m-me?", Marley stuttered blankly.

"Friday evening, Breadstix, 8 o'clock", Kitty said.

"Uhm…I don't really get it, what am I supposed to do there?" Marley looked at her quizzically.

"Do I really have to explain everything to you?!", Kitty ranted. "You and me, we have a date, simple as that. And since you don't have anything better to do, I'm expecting you to show up."

"A date?", Marley asked in amazement. Was that a new plan of Kitty's to attack her again?

"Just for the record, this isn't a new plan of mine to attack you again", Kitty said, "I'm serious here, got that?"

"But don't you typically ask the other person first if they want to go on a date with you?", Marley asked.

"I don't ask, I take action", Kitty said and turned to go. "I'll remind you via text message."

"But you don't even have my phone number!", Marley called out after her.

Kitty looked over her shoulder and grinned. "I do. Remember when you forgot your phone at my house? I saved your number. Just in case of course."

Before Marley could reply anything, she walked away with confident steps.

Completely taken by surprise Marley gazed after her and before she was able to think straight, Unique already approached from the opposite direction and surveyed her in concern.

"Hey, what did Kitty want from you this time?", she asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost. What did she do to you?"

Kitty had long since turned the corner, but Marley was still staring in the same direction.

"Hello? Marley?" Unique waved her hand in front of her face and finally she managed to face Unique. "She asked me out for a date…well, actually she left me no other choice….", she said completely absently.

"For a date?!" Unique burst out in disbelief and attracted some glances by surrounding students.

"Pssst!", Marley made and brought a finger to Unique's lips in order to stop her from informing the whole school about the issue. "Don't tell anybody about this, Kitty kills me if she finds out that I told you."

Unique pushed Marley's hand aside and looked at her doubtfully. "Firstly, I didn't know at all that Kitty has an interest in girls and secondly why did she chose you of all people? I'm sorry but you have to admit that the whole thing seems pretty implausible."

"Yeah, I know", Marley sighed, "but things can hardly get any worse, so why shouldn't I just take a risk for once?"

"Are you even interested in Kitty? After everything she did to you?"

"I don't know", Marley replied. "But I'm curious and I want to learn more about Kitty's true character. She can be a completely different person. Really", she said when she noticed Unique's raised eyebrow. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

"_Second _chance?" Unique laughed without humor. "That amount is more than understated."

"I'm just going to see what happens", Marley said with new determination and in doing so she ignored Unique's remark, which was true though. But in comparison to Kitty, Marley wanted to listen only to her feelings and they weren't signaling her any danger at the moment.

Of course she was surprised by the idea that Kitty had possibly come to like her, but somehow she also felt flattered – in a totally different way than it had been the case with Jake and Ryder. Not that annoying, but thrilling. Even the fact that Kitty was obviously a girl didn't bother her much. That was probably due to her being a member of Glee club. Everyone in there was constantly changing their sexuality.

However, she was still worried that Kitty would only make fun of her in the end, but at least she was used to that. It could only get better.

"Do as you like, but don't complain afterwards", Unique said. "I won't tell anybody about it, but only if you keep me up to date."

"Okay, I will", Marley answered and smiled.


	9. Keep Going

**_A/N: I don''t think there will be much to be happy about for Karley shippers like me in the next episode, but at least there's fanfiction. ;) Today's song is Keep Going by (indie band) StandingEGG. Btw, I hope my english is correct, feel free to point out mistakes and now have fun. :)_  
**

**Chapter 9 – Keep Going**

On Friday evening at 8 pm Kitty was sitting in a quiet corner at Breadstix and waited. Her fingertips were eagerly thrumming on the tabletop and her gaze wandered restlessly to the entrance every few seconds. What had she been thinking? Asking Marley out on a date was completely insane!

But even if the idea was completely insane, Kitty absolutely had to do it. She had to admit to herself that she was falling for Marley – whether she wanted or not. She wasn't especially fond of that fact, but she knew that suppressing wouldn't help this time. Her feelings were already way too much developed for this.

Therefore she had made a decision. She was falling for Marley, so she would go for it and make it clear to her. Kitty could always have her will and usually she got what she wanted. What she wanted in this case was Marley Rose.

By now however, she had started worrying that she wouldn't show up for their date at all, after all it was already several minutes past 8 and she wasn't used to waiting for someone. What if Marley didn't like her at all? Or worse, if she still hadn't forgiven her? Or at the very worst, if she was enjoying herself with Jake or Ryder somewhere? These thoughts filled Kitty with fear, because she didn't want to get rejected. But as always she hid her anxiety behind anger and so she clenched her teeth and intensified the thrumming on the tabletop while she continued observing the entrance. The door opened several times and people entered and left. Finally Marley appeared at the door and took a searching look around.

Kitty instantly felt really nervous and her palms got a little clammy. Actually she knew next to nothing about dating, what was she even supposed to talk about with Marley? Why wasn't she better informed about dating rules or stuff like that?

She hesitantly brought up her hand and waved, so that Marley would notice her. When Marley spotted her, a smile spread over her face and she walked over at a quick pace. Again she was wearing that stupid hat. Why of all things? Still, apart from that she was quite nicely dressed by her standards: she was wearing blue jeans which seemed to be pretty new for once, a beige knit sweater with a matching scarf and her olive-green coat.

Kitty on the other hand had come only in her Cheerios uniform, which wasn't due to lacking effort, but to the fact that she had been standing in front of her wardrobe for almost an hour without being able to decide for an outfit. Eventually she had given up and decided to just keep her usual appearance.

"Hi", Marley said and sat down across from her.

"Hi", Kitty replied and looked at her slightly bashfully. Her head was suddenly emptied, she had no clue of what to say. Just when an awkward silence was about to fall over them the waitress approached and asked for their orders. Kitty ordered a salad and pizza and darted an urgent look at Marley since she seemed to hesitate for a moment. She eventually ordered the same as Kitty and Kitty was relieved that she hadn't skipped the meal. She still felt guilty for Marley's constitution and probably would still do so in future.

"So…," Marley began after a while and looked straight at Kitty. "You're really serious about this? I mean, this is a date after all…"

Kitty cleared her throat and tried to seem less insecure than she felt. "You're smarter than you look, Rose. Whether I like it or not, you can consider yourself happy that I kind of started liking you."

"Not even today you're able to relax a little," Marley stated. "You know, you can be yourself in front of me."

"I am myself!" Kitty protested. "Even if you think that I've got a nice and a mean self, after all, both parts are me and I'm the one to decide which part of me I show to other people."

"Alright, show me the nice part for a change, then," Marley said, tilted her head and surveyed her eagerly.

"Let's see…," Kitty grumbled and Marley laughed. Her laugh always filled Kitty with some kind of satisfaction. When she laughed Kitty didn't have to worry about her.

For a while they talked about school, about Glee and ran Finn down. Of course Kitty wanted to bitch about Jake and Ryder as well, but Marley stopped her before she could come up with insults.

In the meantime the waitress brought their food and Kitty contently watched Marley's pizza becoming gradually smaller.

"By the way, talking about admirers," Kitty began and stabbed her fork into a piece of cucumber. _If you two don't be careful, I'm going to stab you like this as well, _she thought. "I hope they have accepted their defeat by now."

"Kitty, this isn't a competition!" Marley looked at her reproachfully. "I clearly told them that I only want their friendship and nothing romantic. At least I hope I've made myself clear enough."

"You're always way too thoughtful," Kitty answered and stabbed another cucumber. "Maybe it's better if _I_ take care of it."

"Please don't, I'd like to see them alive again."

They were silent for a while and drew their attention to their food. There was one question that Kitty was dying to ask, but she hadn't been confident enough yet to pronounce it. "Grit your teeth and get to it!" she thought.

"So…you turned Jake and Ryder down…"

"You could say that, yes." Marley took a sip from her soda and looked at her in amusement.

"And as you know this is a date…and you showed up after all, everything else would've been unforgivable anyways…"

"Yeah, I'm here as you can see." Marley placed her glass back on the table, rested her chin on her palm and surveyed Kitty expectantly.

"Well…," Kitty continued nervously, "regarding all this there's one specific question that you have to answer...I'm sure you know what I mean?" She looked at Marley urgently and hoped she would be able to guess what she was getting at. However, Marley kept staring at her wordlessly and Kitty mentally sighed. That figures. "The question… whether you're possibly returning my interest in you?" She instantly avoided Marley's gaze by screwing up her eyes and slowly counting to tree.

Nothing happened. Kitty squinted cautiously.

Marley was still sitting in the same position as before and grinned at her.

"What's there to grin about!?" Kitty snapped at her and felt honestly offended. Finally, she had brought herself to ask her a genuine question for once and all she got was a stupid grin.

But Marley's grinning only became bigger and she didn't seem to take Kitty's outburst seriously. "I'm afraid I can't give you a precise answer to that question, yet," she eventually said, "but I wouldn't deny the possibility."

Great. What was that answer supposed to be? Kitty had to admit that she had hoped for more. So it wasn't that easy to win Marley over. After all, she wasn't some kind of item you could just take along if you wanted to have it. But of course Kitty wouldn't give up that easily. She was going to convince the brunette of her qualities.

"Kitty?" Marley's voice suddenly sounded very serious, so that Kitty raised her eyes in concern. Even her grin had vanished. "You're really serious about this, right?"

"I am serious. I don't want to hurt you anymore. Honestly." Kitty looked in Marley's blue eyes and hoped that she would believe her. After all she was telling the truth, which wasn't something she did often.

"Okay." Marley nodded slightly and seemed to ponder on something.

The air was suddenly heavy and fraught with tension and Kitty started feeling uneasy. She frantically searched for something to say without having to reveal the innermost parts of herself again.

"Why the hell are you always running around with that silly hat of yours?" she eventually asked and tried to sound carefree. To be honest, she had always been interested in the answer to that question.

"You mean this one?" Marley asked and touched the grey hat briefly with one hand. "It belonged to my father." Her face assumed an expression which Kitty wasn't able to read. Was it sadness or anger or something in between? At least she had touched on a sensitive topic here. She was really lacking of tactfulness.

"To your father?" she asked anyways, because she had become curious. "What's up with him actually, I've only heard you talking about your mom so far."

"He's away, far away," Marley just said and focused on her hands which were shredding a napkin into tiny pieces.

"Is he dead?" Kitty blurted out and in the exact same moment she just wanted to punch herself. Why was she always so damn direct?

"He isn't dead," Marley replied after several moments and looked up from her napkin. "He's simply not there."

"So he has abandoned you and your mother?"

"You could say so. He just walked out the door and never came back. I was four years old back then."

"Oh", Kitty said in consternation. She had always thought that Marley's family had to be picture-perfect. She couldn't help but to admire her, because despite her situation she was still so positive and optimistic. "And I had to visit those stupid psychologists for years," she thought, "I'm such a wimp."

"It's okay, I can handle it quite well," Marley said and tried to smile since she had probably noticed Kitty's affected expression. Kitty knew that she didn't want anybody to worry about her. In this regard there was no one as selfless as Marley.

"But for my mom it's though," Marley continued . "She's still hoping for him to come back someday, but I think she's waiting for nothing."

"Aren't you mad?" Kitty asked. Was Marley even able to have feelings like anger or hate? But you never know what could be lying below the surface.

"I'm furious," Marley replied and her eyes adopted a bitter expression which Kitty had never seen on her before, not even when she had been like _really_ mean to her.

"I just want to shout at him and ask him what the hell he's been thinking to abandon me and my mom like this. He left us behind with a pile of debts, my mum has totally lost her emotional balance and we never heard a single word from him!"

Kitty was startled when she heard Marley talking like that. She was so incensed, that her cheeks reddened and she clenched her fists.

"But honestly speaking, I don't want to see him ever again. We've always gotten by pretty well", she said and smiled. All of a sudden she was back to normal again.

"So why are you wearing his cap then?" Kitty asked in confusion. If she were in Marley's place she would have totally burned that crap or trampled on it until there were only scraps left.

"Of course I missed him at first and so I've always worn it. Eventually I just got used to it", Marley said and shrugged. She was apparently done with the topic, but Kitty could sense that there was more behind it.

She preferred not asking further though, since she could well do without Marley prying into her own past.

"What about your parents? Are they still together?" Marley asked.

"Yeah, they actually get along quite well, they hardly argue," Kitty answered truthfully. "They are married for 30 years already."

"Really? That long?" Marley marveled. "Were they that young when they got married?"

"They were pretty old already, when they got me," Kitty answered and hoped that she would stop asking questions now. For a change she was lucky.

"I see", Marley only said and put the last piece of her pizza into her mouth.

The evening proceeded and the restaurant slowly began emptying. Kitty noticed that she was getting tired and furthermore she had promised to her parents that she wouldn't be home late.

She waved the waitress nearer and paid for them both, before Marley could come up with the idea to pay for herself. After all Kitty had invited her and the brunette was always short of money anyways.

"I'll walk you home," Kitty said when they soon after stepped outside. The air was chilly and Kitty regretted that she hadn't put on warmer cloth. Marley nodded and didn't have any objections for once, since her house lay on the way to Kitty's anyways.

They walked side by side in silence. Kitty's hands were slid into the pockets of her cheerios jacket and her eyes were adjusted to the ground. Now and then she would peek at Marley, whose profile didn't look that bad at all.

They barely talked all along the way, but the silence didn't feel awkward. Kitty however gradually began to feel restless, because the way to Marley's place became shorter and shorter and she was running out of time. "Do something!" she thought. "Get your hands out of your pockets and take her hand. This is a freaking date after all! I can't let her get away that easily! Go hand! Move! Oh damn it, now it's not the right moment again, but I'm definitely going to do it when we reach the street light over there...really." But no matter how much she struggled with herself, she just couldn't bring herself to draw closer to Marley. It was as if a glass wall was between them, which she wasn't able to break through. Something was holding her back. That something was probably her fear of rejection.

"I'm such a fricking coward!" Kitty thought and clenched her fists inside her pockets.

_**A/N2: Don't worry, this isn't the end of their date yet. ;) Please let me know what you think, I'd appreciate it! **_


	10. Falling

**_A/N: This is the 10th chapter already, thanks for all the reviews, follows and favorites so far, keep it up! :) I hope you like this chapter, even though it's short. The song is Falling by John Park. Not all the lyrics match Marley's situation, but I just love the mood of the song. So go chack it out, it's one of my favorites. :)_  
**

**Chapter 10 – Falling**

Marley stopped at the driveway to her house and looked at Kitty. It seemed like their first date was going to end here.

Marley had noticed that Kitty had been quite tense, she was sure the blonde was still struggling with herself if she should take her hand or something like that. Suddenly it was way easier for Marley to see through Kitty. She didn't knew whether she was now able to interpret her behavior better or whether Kitty granted her to guess at least fragments of her insides. It was probably a mix of both.

But even if she knew that Kitty was trying to come closer to her, she didn't do anything to make it easier for her. Firstly, she felt too insecure herself and she didn't want to do anything wrong and secondly she had to admit that it was pretty amusing to keep Kitty in suspense for a while.

But as Marley was standing there like that and looked into Kitty's grey eyes, she had the feeling that something was still missing. She knew she'd regret it, if she let Kitty go like this. But what should she do?

"I'm leaving then," Kitty said without averting her gaze.

"Okay," Marley answered barely audible. Damn it, time was running out!

"Today was not that bad at all", Kitty mumbled and shuffled one foot over the ground.

Marley only nodded and suddenly she wasn't able to make a sound anymore. What was wrong with her? She had to do something!

"See you…I guess," Kitty continued staring into her eyes for a moment, then she ended their eye contact and turned around.

Marley was desperate, she wanted to do something, anything, but neither her voice nor her limps were following her instructions anymore. All she was able to do was standing there and watching Kitty slowly walking away from her. Step by step.

_Damn it, Marley, you can't do anything wrong here, so do something! Now!_

"Kitty…" she uttered. Unfortunately her voice was so low that she could barely hear herself.

Still, Kitty seemed to have heard her, because she stopped her steps a few meters away from her and then she hesitantly looked back over her shoulder. They both remained motionlessly in this position without saying a word. Marley's voice had died on her once again and she was sure, that Kitty would now turn around and leave.

She could see that Kitty was pondering over something while she stared back at Marley. Then she suddenly turned completely towards her and took a few quick steps – her hands still inside her pockets – in her direction. Before Marley could realize what was going on she felt Kitty's lips on her own.

At the next moment the touch had already ended and Kitty walked away with fast steps, save that her steps seemed way more cheery than they had before.

Wow, Marley thought and wondered if she hadn't just imagined the whole thing. She slowly brought up her hand and carefully touched her lower lip. Had Kitty really just kissed her?

It had only been fleeting, but still it had made a lasting impression on her. And why did she suddenly feel her heart beating? Was this the cheesy stuff her mother had told her about?

She kept standing in the darkness, which was only illuminated by the pale yellow light of the street light, for another few moments and wondered at it. Then she finally gained back her self control and went home.

* * *

A new week came and Marley hadn't heard anything from Kitty since Friday night. She wondered if the blonde possibly would make a retread of if she had just intended to hurt her after all. But she secretly knew that Kitty was probably just afraid and shy. Yet she didn't want to cling to the idea too much, so she wouldn't get too disappointed in the end.

She walked around school observantly and whenever she saw a Cheerios-uniform she hoped that it might by Kitty. Several jocks with Slushie-cups in their hands passed her, but luckily none of them went after her today. In fact, Marley was rarely a victim of their attacks. She certainly wasn't standing on top of the social ladder, but besides from Kitty no one actually regarded her as a loser. She was just an ordinary unremarkable high-school girl, who was rather ignored than attacked.

The only person (apart from her father of course) who had really made her life miserable was Kitty. But despite everything Marley had never hated her. She was way more upset whenever people were making fun of her mother than when she got humiliated.

She thoughtfully made a beeline for one of the bathrooms and entered. When she checked her appearance in the mirror she saw one of the stalls opening. The red and white uniform instantly caught her eye and this time it was in fact Kitty.

The blonde looked a little startled when Marley turned around and smiled slightly. Then she seemed to compose herself and a neutral expression appeared on her face. At least no disparaging or angry look. You could call that a progress.

"Hey Kitty," Marley said shyly. Again, she was filled with that certain nervousness and excitement she had often felt at the thought of Kitty these days – only much more intensive.

"Hi," Kitty answered brusquely and avoided looking at her. She was apparently even more awkward than Marley.

"Which means that I have to pull off the action today," Marley thought.

"Kitty, I need to ask you something," she began and waited for a reaction, but Kitty didn't do anything, so she just continued: "What are we? What's going to happen…with you and me?" The door opened and some girl walked in. Marley waited for her to disappear in one of the stalls and then she whispered: "I mean, you kissed me after all!"

Kitty flinched visibly and now you could make out a trace of anger on her features. Marley should have known.

"Okay, listen," Kitty whispered back. She bit her lower lip and seemed more relaxed again. "It's hard for me to tell you this, but I have to admit that I do kinda like you. But still, I'm not ready yet for…" She rolled her eyes when Marley didn't answer. Why did she always expect _her_ to finish her sentences?

"…for the next step", she eventually finished.

The toilet was flushed and the girl left the stall and came to a halt at the sink next to them. She took a peek at Kitty and Marley, which Kitty of course noticed immediately. "Mind your own business!" she snapped at her and the poor girl hurried to leave the room.

Normally Marley wouldn't have approved that kind of behavior, but for today she was honestly glad about it, because now they could talk without having to whisper all the time.

"You mean you're not ready for a relationship yet?" she asked.

Kitty just nodded.

"So what do you suggest?" Marley asked.

Kitty hesitated for an instant, then she finally looked at Marley again. "I thought of something like a test run…"

"Test run?"

"One month. We're going to have dates and all that stuff, but we're not officially together, we're not going to make a fuss about it at school and you're not allowed to ask questions about my personal life. These are the rules." Kitty had apparently overcome her shyness.

"How's this supposed to work out, if I'm not allowed to get to know you better?" Marley asked skeptically. Of course she would ask questions and screw some personal details out of Kitty, but the blonde didn't have to know that yet.

"We'll see." So she didn't have a plan herself. She could as well expect the worst.

"And what's going to happen after this one month?"

"Then we'll decide how we're going to move on. Maybe I already lose interest after two weeks and end the whole thing, who knows?" Kitty said.

This statement indeed affected Marley a little, but she sensed that Kitty wouldn't give up that easily. She never started something without completing it.

"Alright, one month", she eventually said.

"So you agree?"

"Yeah, I don't have a choice, right?"

"Right." Kitty grinned and held up her hand. "Deal?"

"Deal," Marley said and they high fived. This solution was probably rather childish, but she was content since she also didn't feel ready to define their relationship yet. She was excited to see how the next weeks would turn out.

"Why do these scenes always take place in bathrooms?" Kitty asked as they entered the hallway together.

"What do you mean?"

"Nevermind."


	11. Lovely Day

**_A/N: So I just watched the latest episode and yeah...not the best episode ever *cough*. Screw Jarley and ship Karley! :D To get back to the story: I know the genre is romance/angst, but for know I'm going to focus more on the romance part, there will be some angsty parts later though, I already have a rough plan for the whole story. It could be possible that I will update a little more irregularly, I hope it's okay. _  
**

**_The song for today is Lovely Day by Park Shin Hye. _**

**Chapter 11 – Lovely Day**

"You think this hard?! I ship Faberry, THAT's hard!" Sues voice came out of the megaphone.

Kitty clenched her teeth hard while she was trying not to make the pyramid collapse. Sometimes Sue really got on her nerves.

"Ouch!" she blurted out when the cheerleader on top of her moved a foot on her shoulder. Much to her displeasure she wasn't standing on top today, but only on second rank of the pyramid. Today of all days, the day Marley was watching their training from the gymnasium's tribune. She and Unique seemed quite impressed and Kitty couldn't help smiling at her whenever their eyes met.

"Admit it, you want to impress her," Brittany, who seemed obviously more relaxed, said next to her.

"Whatever," Kitty grumbled. In her opinion, second rank was more or less worthless. She wanted to be on top as always, but Sue's tempers were unpredictable.

The only positive thing about this day was that she was finally going to spend some time with Marley. They had been completely occupied with their schoolwork and clubs that week, so that they had barely had a minute alone time since their talk in the bathroom. And even if they were alone, it had only been some short moments and nothing much had happened.

To be honest Kitty still couldn't really believe that she began this kind of relationship, even though it was just a test run yet, with Marley. A few weeks ago she had declared everyone who dared to make such an assumption insane. She had probably gone completely insane herself now since she was simmering with excitement for school to end, because then she could finally spend time with Marley.

"Ouch!" When would that wretched bitch finally stop moving her damn foot?!

"Enough for today!" the voice from the megaphone eventually announced and Kitty exhaled in relief.

When Kitty came out of the changing room after a short time, dressed in her winter uniform, Marley and Unique were already standing at the exit waiting for her.

"Hi", Marley beamed at her and Kitty sensed that she started blushing. That girl was making her lose control of herself so damn easily.

"Hi", she replied and Unique, who was standing in the background, just lifted a hand. Kitty knew she didn't trust her – she didn't trust the boygirl either.

They went to the parking lot and said goodbye to Unique. Kitty and Marley got into her small red Volkswagen and headed for Kitty's home.

During the ride Kitty cast nervous glances at the brunette every now and then. Being alone with her all of sudden felt somehow weird. Marley however seemed to be comfortable and looked out the window with a content expression.

"I guess Sue Sylvester's training is pretty hard," she said eventually.

"Nah, you get used to it," Kitty answered while she was focusing on not knocking down garbage cans and people on the sidewalk. "Aside from that it was quite easy for me today since I weren't standing on top, which I usually always do of course. You were just unlucky that I couldn't show all my talent to you today. That stupid b…girl who was standing on top isn't as half as good as I am, so next time Sue will definitely chose me again", she said determinedly.

"I liked your performance anyways," Marley said. "Even the people at the very bottom are important, without them you couldn't do anything…and to me you're the most important out of them anyway," she added.

Kitty almost forgot to turn right for the street she lived in when she heard this. Luckily she could only just turn the corner without causing any damage.

"I see," she said sheepishly and gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. "Maybe you're right."

Marley laughed and gave her one of her damn cute looks, then the car came to a stand in front of Kitty's house.

Kitty opened the front door and stepped aside, to let Marley enter. Her parents hadn't come back from work yet, which meant they actually had some time for themselves now. She started to feel kind of nervous at the thought. She had no idea what to do or what to talk about with her.

Actually she _always_ had an idea of what to do, but when it came to Marley, suddenly everything was different. But she didn't care, she just wanted to go for it and see what happened.

"Wow, nice room," Marley said in amazement when she stepped into Kitty's room a few moments later.

"Thanks." Kitty was happy that she liked her sunflower-colored room, whose walls were all over covered with cheerios certificates and medals. Marley walked around for a few minutes and eyed everything extensively. She eventually stopped in front of Kitty's bedside table and looked at the framed photograph standing on it. "Who's that?" she asked curiously.

Kitty gulped nervously. Why hadn't she put that picture away? But sooner or later the brunette would learn it anyways, she couldn't keep everything from her after all.

"My parents."

Marley gave her a puzzled look, then she examined the photo more closely. Kitty could see her frowning slightly and thinking about something. "Are they your real parents?" she asked eventually.

"Of course they are," Kitty answered slightly irritably. She had heard this stupid question countless times by now. Still, she didn't want to get mad at Marley, so she tried to control her anger as best as she could.

"But your father's Asian and your mother has dark hair…oh," she said and looked at Kitty in disbelief. "Does this mean you're…adopted?"

"First of all, my father is not Asian, he is an American with Chinese background and just because I'm adopted, it doesn't mean they're not my real parents," Kitty said and tried not to let her voice sound too harsh. However, she obviously didn't quite manage it since Marley's face suddenly adopted a shameful expression.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to be so direct, I said something wrong again…please, don't be angry…," she mumbled.

"You didn't say anything wrong and I'm not angry, really," Kitty soothed her. "And now let's finally enjoy our free time," she cheerily smiled at Marley and the brunette returned her smile hesitantly. "So, what do you want to do?" Kitty asked.

"Uhm, yeah…I'm actually quite hungry," Marley replied bashfully.

"That's great!" Kitty blurted out. "I mean, not great, but you know what I mean…after everything that has happened…," she stammered. "Let's cook something super-delicious, okay?"

"Okay," Marley agreed with a happy nod.

They went into the Wilde-kitchen, which was clean and tidy like always. Kitty opened the fridge and inspected its content. "Mh…how about pasta with vegetable sauce? I'm sorry I haven't thought of doing the grocery shopping, otherwise we could cook something much better." Wow this was the first time in a while Kitty admitted she had made a mistake.

"Nah, it's okay," Marley reassured her. "I love pasta!"

While Kitty boiled some water and prepared the sauce, Marley took care of the vegetables. "This is crazy," she thought. "Who would have thought that I would ever be in Kitty's kitchen and prepare dinner with her?" She shook her head and smiled to herself.

"What're you grinning at?" Kitty asked and darted a wry look at her.

"I just thought of something funny."

"Will you tell me?"

"No," Marley replied and grinned.

Kitty grimaced and stirred the sauce discontentedly. "Be careful about your actions, Rose." But Marley could see the hidden smile in her eyes and she knew it was genuine.

"So…why were you adopted after all?" Marley asked after a while.

Kitty's good mood seemed to have vanished in an instant as she answered: "Apparently they didn't care about me much."

"Do you remember them?"

"No. And know be careful that the sauce doesn't burn!" she changed the subject and Marley decided not to ask questions anymore for today, even if she had become quite curious. She had never heard of Kitty being adopted, probably she hadn't told anyone about it once again.

"Could you get the plates from the cupboard? Somehow my parents still haven't realized I'm too small for this one," Kitty said.

"Of course, no problem." Marley walked over to said cupboard and took out two plates. It was sorta cute that Kitty was so small. Woah, now she even started to call the blonde 'cute'! Again, Marley began to smile to herself, which Kitty acknowledged with a disapproving look.

"Why are you grinning again now?"

"I thought that it's cute you're so small." Oh no, that was going to cause trouble.

But instead Kitty didn't say anything and just grinned at her. She took the plates from her and their hands touched briefly. Marley froze and whished the contact would last longer and Kitty seemed to think the same way. At least she put the plates on top of the counter and then looked at Marley, before she hesitantly took the brunette's hand in her own.

For a while both girls looked at her clasped hands, until Kitty rose her eyes and stroked back a strand of hair from Marley's face.

"Remember Friday night?" she asked.

Marley nodded. Of course she remembered this brief moment in which their lips had touched. It had burned into her brain like an indelible mark.

"Wanna do it again?"

Marley nodded once again and nervously watched Kitty's face coming closer to hers. She hadn't even realized how much she had longed for this.

When they were only centimeters apart she closed her eyes and waited for the overwhelming sensation she had felt at the first time.

"Kitty?! Are you home?" someone suddenly called out in the house causing Kitty and Marley to wince like they were being caught at something forbidden.

"Damn it, why are they home so early again? Kitty grumbled with reddened cheeks. "Yeah, we're in the kitchen!" she shouted back towards the hall.

Just moments later Mrs. Wilde closely followed by Mr. Wilde walked into the kitchen.

"Hello," Marley greeted and smiled shyly.

"Hello, I'm Kitty's mum," Mrs. Wilde introduced herself and shook her hand. "And you are?"

"I'm Marley."

"Oh, Marley Rose, right? Kitty already told me a lot about you," Mrs. Wilde said and winked at her.

"Mum, enough already!" Kitty interrupted her.

"Wow, you've even cooked dinner?" Mr. Wilde asked.

"Since you're already here, we can just as well eat together," Kitty suggested.

As they were sitting together at the table soon after (this was the first time Marley was allowed to sit down), Marley almost felt like part of the family. She would have never expected Kitty's parents to be such caring, understanding people. Regarding Kitty's behavior she had rather expected the exact opposite.

Despite fist signs of age Kitty's dad was a handsome man. During the meal he joked around a lot and he made Marley laugh every time. Kitty's mum was a tad more serious, but no less friendly than her dad. She asked both girls about school and exchanged knowing looks with Kitty from time to time. She apparently knew what was going on between them. Marley got a guilty conscience, because she still had not told her mother about Kitty. Well, she would take care of that later.

As for this moment however, Kitty herself attracted her attention more than anything else. In contrast to the Kitty she knew from school she was like a completely different person. She seemed totally relaxed and whenever she laughed it wasn't a mean or disdainful laugh.

Now and then she gave her a short glance or a smile, which filled Marley with a strange affection. In this moment she was at peace with the world and herself and her self doubts and worries were forgotten.

"Alright, we're doing the dishes," Mrs. Wilde said when they had finished their meal. "You did the cooking after all."

"Thanks mum." Kitty jumped off her chair and motioned for Marley to do the same.

"Tell me, if Kitty doesn't behave properly," Mr. Wilde said and Marley giggled while Kitty stared at him sulkily. "Dad! You're the one who should behave properly!" Then she rushed out of the room and Marley followed her.

"Your parents are really cool," Marley said when they sat on Kitty's bed a few moments later.

"Yes, they are," Kitty replied thoughtfully. "I guess I was lucky." She dropped back and stared at the ceiling. "Are you going to Sadie Hawkins next week?" she asked eventually without changing her position.

"I'd like to." Marley sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "But I don't have a suitable dress and at the moment I can't afford a new one, not even secondhand," she mumbled in embarrassment.

"No problem," Kitty said and straightened herself. "You can have one of mine."

"R-really, b-but…," Marley stuttered, but Kitty had already walked over to her wardrobe and took a searching look inside. "They aren't as fancy as Prom dresses of course, but it'll be alright for Sadie Hawkins," she said and pulled out a knee-length dark green dress. "This will surely look great on you and besides it was always a little too long for me. Do you want to try it on?" she asked and handed it to Marley.

"Yes, sure," Marley answered and got up.

"Uhm…," she said hesitantly when Kitty was still standing in front of her.

"Oh." An expression of realization spread over Kitty's face. "I'll just wait outside, tell me when you're finished." And with hasty steps she disappeared out of the room.

Marley took off her cloth, placed them neatly on Kitty's bed and put on the dress. She looked at herself in the mirror and found the sight not that bad at all.

"Alright, you can come in!" she called out and the door instantly opened and Kitty came back in.

She eyed Marley with one of her typical looks, so that she got really nervous.

"I was right, it looks amazing on you," she then said and smiled. In her eyes lay a certain expression Marley couldn't quite interpret since she had never seen it before on her. Except for New Year's Eve maybe.

"You think so? I-"

"Really," Kitty interrupted her. "And don't worry, you don't look fat at all." She took a few steps towards Marley and looked directly into her eyes. "Now listen carefully, because I'm only going to say this once…you…you look beautiful."

Marley's eyes widened in surprise. She wasn't used to get compliments, especially not from Kitty and she had no idea how she should react to this.

But this wasn't even necessary since her body had long reacted by bending forward. She suddenly found her lips on Kitty's and this time they didn't get interrupted, so Marley could finally enjoy the sensation she had waited for the whole time.

Kitty apparently felt the same way. She slowly lifted her hands and gently cupped Marley's cheeks.

After some seconds, minutes, hours, whatever, Kitty pulled back, yet she was still close, so that Marley could feel her warm breath against her skin.

"I wish I could've been your first kiss," Kitty whispered slightly bleakly.

"You were my best." Marley cheerily smiled at her and kissed the tip of her nose.

"I can do much better, you know?"

"Then prove it."

_**A/N2: Next chapter will be about MY version of Sadie Hawkins hehe. ;) Please comment and let me know what you think, I'd appreciate it! :) **_


	12. I'm A Foolish Person

**_A/N: Hello there, I hope you like this chapter. ^^ The lyrics I used are part of the english translation of FT Island's song "I'm a foolish person." This song is perfect for Kitty. _  
**

**Chapter 12 – I'm A Foolish Person**

Kitty was quite late, when she entered the hall. Jacob Ben Israel, that ugly moron, had stopped her to pump her about some rumor. Allegedly one of her fellow cheerios was dating some star-quarterback from Camel High. Kitty couldn't care less.

Her mood hadn't been particularly good from the start. She actually didn't want to go to this ball and she also hadn't asked anyone to go there with her. Of course she could have asked Marley, but she didn't do it. Why? Because she wanted to stick by the rules of their agreement.

_Because you're a coward_, a nasty little voice echoed through her thoughts.

"Oh, just shut up."

Kitty took a few steps into the wintrily decorated hall and as always the first thing she did was to get an overview over the situation.

She raised an eyebrow when she saw Blaine and Tina dancing together and grinned mischievous at the sight of Jake, who was standing alone in a corner and was constantly staring in a certain direction. Kitty followed his gaze and discovered a bunch of girls who were sitting apart from the rest on a small tribune and observing the happenings desperately.

"What a bunch of losers," Kitty thought snidely. "They obviously don't have the guts to ask somebody out, but who would like to hang out with them anyways?"

Kitty headed towards the group to let off some mean comments when she suddenly spotted Marley among them. She was sitting far on the left from Kitty's point of view and had tucked up her knees. No wonder that Kitty hadn't seen her earlier. Lauren Zizes was sitting in front of her.

She was wearing the dress Kitty had given to her and on this evening she looked even more stunning than she had last time.

She spotted Kitty and smiled a bittersweet smile, so that Kitty choked on her words and kept standing silently in front of the group for a while.

"You want to join us?" Sugar asked and made an inviting gesture.

"I bet she just wants to make fun of us," Lauren said. "But you're going to regret it, Wilde. People who mess with me don't get back on her feet easily."

"Stop talking nonsense. If I wait for you to get up, graduation will be over", Kitty snapped back and took a seat next to Marley.

"Hi," Marley said and gave her a shy look.

Kitty smiled and watched the dancing students. She registered the distance between her and the brunette, which seemed unbridgeable in this moment.

"Don't you want to dance with someone?" Marley asked with feigned casualness.

"No," Kitty replied and kept staring ahead stubbornly.

"I'd like to." Marley's voice sounded low and hesitant, but also slightly hopeful.

"Go and ask Joe or Ryder. Anyone but Jake."

Marley bit her lower lip and fell silent. She didn't say anything for the following minutes and just stared at her knees.

After a while Coach Beiste approached them and stopped to give them some kind of motivation speech. She babbled something about being a wallflower (which Kitty definitely wasn't) and having the courage to ask somebody to dance.

"The worst he could say is no."

Kitty gulped and looked at Marley. She wasn't afraid that Marley would say no. She was afraid that Marley would become her weak point, the point where others could hurt her. Yes, Kitty Wilde was afraid! She had spent her whole live building up a shell around her which was impermeable to outsiders and sometimes even to herself.

But damn it, she wanted Marley to be happy, she wanted to see her smile and to protect her from the whole world if necessary. This girl had snuck her way through the barriers surrounding her. Real slowly at first, but then she had swept across her like a gust of wind, had turned her upside down and then started to reconstruct her core step by step and in the course of that she brought out features of her, Kitty herself had forgotten they even existed.

Kitty bent over to Marley and whispered: "Do you know why I had been so mean to you?"

Marley looked at her in surprise. "Maybe because I'm poor and…because I'm a loser?"

Kitty shook her head resolutely and her face adopted a serious expression. "No, those things didn't matter to me. I treated you so horrible, because you made me lose control over myself. And it freaked me out."

Marley opened her moth to say something, but Kitty put a finger on her lips. "Don't even start apologizing again! It freaked me out and totally irritated me, but it doesn't matter, I don't care anymore. And so I want to ask you if…you'd like to dance with me. You can take the lead, if you want to."

Marley beamed at her and got up. "May I have this dance?" she asked and held out her hand. Kitty took it and hand in hand they headed over to the dance floor.

They danced to several upbeat songs without letting go of one another. Kitty let Marley spin her around and couldn't help laughing the whole time. Her light pink dress harmonized better than she had thought with the dark green color of Marley's. They were definitely the best looking ones in this room, Kitty was sure of that.

After a while Ryder entered the stage and started to sing a slow song.

Marley let go off her hand and looked at her insecurely. The couples surrounding them had started swaying with the music, their faces close to each other. Kitty spotted Lauren and Joe, who appeared a little intimidated. Crazy shit.

"Don't you want to dance anymore?" Kitty asked.

"I-I do", Marley answered shyly. "If it's okay for you…"

"More than okay," Kitty grinned and put her arms around Marley's neck.

Everything around her became blurry while she looked into Marley's eyes, which finally weren't focusing the ground insecurely anymore. Instead she returned her gaze and Kitty felt like she was being absorbed by those eyes.

Blue eyes shimmering in the dim light, brown hair tickling her arms, warm hands around her waist and a faint scent of strawberry-shampoo were everything Kitty sensed.

She neither registered the surprised or shocked looks of the others nor Joe's cry when Lauren stepped on his foot.

_Like the sweet scent of candy you tickled my heart and made me smile, _a line of a song she had heard in a coffee shop a while ago sounded in her mind. Back then she had considered the lyrics completely dumb. Now she finally understood their real meaning.

_You're the kind of person that makes me want to change. _

She wasn't going to change for Marley. She would just become herself again.

"What's that supposed to be?!" she suddenly heard an enraged voice behind her.

With a start Kitty left hold of Marley and turned around.

There was Jake staring angrily at them.

"What are you up to?! Is there something going on between you two or what?!"

The music had stopped and in the blink of an eye everything was silent. The students surrounding them had formed a circle around them and watched the events curiously.

Kitty stood there like petrified and wasn't able to say a word. There were two things she feared the most: Being ignored and the idea of being attackable and vulnerable. The latter had happened now.

"Marley, do you seriously believer her?!" Jake shouted. "She just wants to hurt you, don't you get it?! I can't remember one single moment she actually did something good! She's evil to the core!" He approached Marley and gripped her arm forcefully to drag her with him. Kitty watched the scene with wide eyes, but she wasn't able to do something.

For an instant it seemed like Marley would let Jake drag her away and a painful sting crossed Kitty's heart. But then a determined expression appeared on Marley's face and she shook off Jake's hand.

"Stop talking about her like that," she said in a calm voice.

"Are you totally insane now?!" Jake asked incredulously. "What the hell did she do to you?!"

"She made me a stronger person!" Marley shouted and her voice also sounded agitated now.

"Really?!" Jake shouted back. "I've only seen her destroying you so far! Did you forget that?! Don't you realize you're taken in by her again?!"

"You think I'm stupid?! I thought we were friends!" Marley almost screamed and her cheeks began to turn red.

"I can't be friends with you, if you don't realize that you're letting yourself get ruined by that girl!"

"Kitty doesn't ruin me!" Dozens of students watched her walking over to Kitty and taking her hand. When she continued speaking her voice sounded calm again. "Kitty may just be a coldhearted bully in your eyes, but that's because you don't bother to take a look behind that façade. Bad for you, because you'll never get to know the wonderful person hiding there."

Kitty looked at Marley in surprise.

Confident like never before, Marley was standing next to her and returned Jake's look of reproach without batting an eyelash. Jake opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He was such a moron. How dared he to shout at Marley like that!

And at this thought Kitty finally managed to free herself from her stupor and she squeezed Marley's hand. "Alright, you tiny little fake-Obama," she addressed Jake. "Now listen carefully: Marley belongs to me and if you don't like that, go and cry or jump off a bridge, but you're not going to change anything with it. And now piss off and stop spoiling this evening for me. And this is to all of you…," she turned and eyed the surrounding students with a disdainful look. "Mind your own frigging business and make out with your dates or whatever, but stop staring like you're stupid."

Right on cue the music began to play again and the students hesitantly picked up their dancing. Apparently Kitty hadn't lost a bit of authority. She grinned and a feeling of satisfaction fulfilled her.

Jake gave them a last furious glance, then he stamped away and disappeared among the crowd.

Marley looked after him in concern, but Kitty squeezed her hand once again to gain her attention. "It's pointless now, talk to him later," she said and took her other hand as well. She actually couldn't care less about Jake's wellbeing and she'd liked to bash him some more, but she knew Marley was actually worried about him and such a fight depressed her.

"Let's just enjoy the rest of our evening, okay?" Kitty put her arms back around Marley's neck and looked at her pleadingly.

"Okay." Marley smiled, but it couldn't completely erase the trace of concern on her features.

They rejoined the other dancing couples, who were still eying them curiously every now and then, but basically also wanted to have a good time there. And if someone did stare a little too shamelessly, Kitty darted a killing glance at them, which never failed to have the desired effect.

To Kitty's relieve, the rest of the evening went off smoothly and nobody asked annoying questions, which was perhaps down to the fact that she avoided any Glee club members. They were occupied with their own stuff anyways.

Jake hadn't showed his face again for the whole evening, he was probably upset or took Kitty's advice and was jumping off a bridge right now.

"I loved the way you stood up to Jake," Kitty said after a while. The music had become more upbeat in the meantime and they had let go off one another, but their looks were still tightly locked. "I didn't know you can be that strong."

"Still, I definitely have to clear this up with him," Marley answered guiltily.

"He will understand."

"Hopefully."

_Thank you…for calling me a wonderful person,_ Kitty thought, but she didn't say it out loud. She didn't feel ready yet and furthermore she really wasn't fond of romantic-cheesy confessions.

The ball drew to a close and Kitty and Marley decided to go home since they were both getting tired and, even though it had been a lot of fun, their motivation to dance was fading. Kitty was already filled with horror thinking of the sight of blisters she would find on her feet later.

They stepped out of the hall and into the hallways of McKinley High. Surrounded by semi-darkness they made a beeline for the main exit, when Kitty suddenly spotted the outline of a giant afro-hairdo.

"Shit, there's Jacob Ben Israel," she hissed in panic and cut out an insult since she couldn't come up with anything due to the lack of time. She dragged Marley along into an empty classroom, shut the door behind them and hoped he wouldn't find them in there.

"What's wrong?" Marley whispered.

"Shht!" Kitty made and remained motionless by the door for a few moments. Bluish moonlight fell through the side windows and cast long shadows on the floor. The fair skin of Marley's face stood out clearly from the darkness as she also waited tacitly.

"I think he's gone," Kitty eventually said and peered through the small window in the door. "But let's keep waiting a little longer, just to be safe."

"Since when are you afraid of Jacob?" Marley asked.

"I'm not afraid of him!" Kitty protested. "But he is so damn persistent, even I can hardly get rid of him…and I don't think you'd approve it, if I killed him."

"Most likely not." Marley smiled and tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear.

_I'm in love with her_, it suddenly hit Kitty.

She hadn't allowed herself to think of this since New Year's Eve, but there was no other explanation for the fact that this simple motion of Marley's suddenly filled her with some sort of affection which was completely different from everything she had ever considered to be "love" before.

A vacant classroom. Moonlight falling through a window. A brunette tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Unrelated things starting to make sense.

Kitty Wilde and Marley Rose.

Marley wasn't her weak point, it dawned on Kitty. She was the one who made her stronger than ever before.

"Thank you," Kitty whispered barely audible.

"For what?"

"For the things you said."

Instead of an answer Marley drew closer to her and put her arms around her waist. The brunette wanted to kiss her, no doubt. She bent forward, but Kitty stopped her.

"I can't do this anymore."


	13. Shine

_**A/N: I'm sorry for the cliffhanger (okay, actually I'm not, but you know what I mean), don't worry too much and just read on. :) Thanks everyone for rading, folloing, favind reviewing this story, it means a lot to me. :) P.S.: The song is Shine by Kilgu Bong Gu. **_

**Chapter 13 – Shine**

„I can't do this anymore."

Marley's face was just a few inches from Kitty's when she slowly realized the meaning of her words.

"W-what do you mean?" Had she made a mistake or something? Oh god, she certainly did! But what could she have done wrong? In panic she thought about what had happened in the last few hours, but she couldn't find a reason for Kitty's words. Then a terrifying idea crossed her mind. Did Kitty want to end _everything_ right now?

Marley turned around and hid her face from Kitty, so that she couldn't see the tears welling up in her eyes. Only a few seconds had passed, but to her it seemed like a cruel eternity.

"But the test run isn't over for another two weeks…" she said weakly.

"Forget that stupid test run!"

Kitty came closer and touched her arm. She tried to get Marley to turn around again, but the brunette kept averting her face. The disappointment she felt in this moment was just too much.

"Marley, look at me", she said in a soft voice, so that Marley finally had the courage to face her. She expected to find a scornful or contemptuous expression in her eyes, but instead that eyes looked at her in an almost pleading way. Not exactly typical for Kitty.

"I don't need that test run anymore", Kitty said and Marley bit her lower lip to prevent it from trembling.

"Just be with me…please."

Marley didn't know what to say, so she was only able to stare at her for a while. Her mind, which had been all churned up just seconds ago, was suddenly clear and freed from all thoughts. One single tear run down her cheeks and dripped onto the fabric of her dress.

"Marley, what's wrong?" Kitty asked in panic when the trembling of Marley's lower lip increased.

More tears followed the first one and eventually they ran down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Kitty finally made a move and pulled her into a tight hug. "Did I do anything wrong?" the blonde asked the same question Marley had asked herself before.

"No", Marley answered and rested her hands on Kitty's back. "I'm just relieved."

"You thought I'd just dump you like that?" Kitty asked.

Marley didn't respond, but buried her face in Kitty's hair. She had always wanted to do that.

"I would never do that to you", Kitty whispered and loosened the embrace so she could look at Marley. Gently she wiped off her tears, which had ruined all her make up by now. Marley was sure she looked horrible right now.

But Kitty could apparently read her mind, after all she said: "How can you still look so pretty with that puffy face of yours?" She smiled and pulled up the corners of Marley's mouth.

"Stop it", Marley laughed.

"At least it worked." Kitty looked at her contentedly, before her expression became more serious, maybe even slightly nervous. "But you still didn't give me an answer."

"Of course I want to be with you", Marley said without having to think about it.

"So the test run is officially over now!"

"Yeah." Marley nodded and wiped her eyes.

"This means I can finally kiss you now", Kitty grinned and closed the distance between them. Marley shut her eyes and pulled Kitty into her.

She had spent the last few hours on an emotional rollercoaster thanks to a tiny blonde cheerleader of whom she had thought that she hated her just weeks ago.

_Maybe I'm really in love with her. _

_My first love._

* * *

Marley opened her eyes and gave the alarm clock an angry stare when it ringed punctually at 6:30 a.m. She hit the snooze button and shut her eyes again. She tried to remember the details from her dream which had left a pleasant feeling inside her, but the more she thought about it, the less she could recall. Still, she was sure that a certain tiny blonde cheerleader had appeared in it.

Kitty. Her girlfriend.

At the thought a wide grin spread on her face and she embraced her blanket with her arms and legs. She happily rolled back and forth in her small bed and almost dropped out.

She probably looked pretty stupid right now.

Suddenly her mother opened the door and gave her a puzzled look. "Marley, what are you doing there?" she asked.

"I'm looking forward to school, that's all", Marley replied.

Mrs. Rose tilted her head and thought about it for a moment, but then she left the room to make breakfast.

Marley was actually looking forward to school. She missed Kitty badly, because she hadn't seen her for the whole weekend. Sue Sylvester had set up some extra training once again, so that the Cheerios had only just time for eating and sleeping. If at all. At least Kitty had sent her a text from time to time to keep her up to date about Sue's latest freakishness.

Marley finally got up, got ready for school and had breakfast with her mom. She still hadn't told her about Kitty, but she knew she had to do it soon since she didn't want her to catch if from some rumor at school. After all you get a lot of information if you're a lunch lady.

When Marley entered the building a little later she felt that something was different than before. Her surroundings appeared brighter, the other students' faces more friendly and Sue, who stormed past her in a pink tracksuit, a little less frightening. And the strangest thing: Marley felt a change about herself.

Usually she tried to get to her locker as fast and inconspicuously as she could, with her gaze glued to the ground and gripping her books tightly, but today she let her eyes wander around, let her books sway at her side and she noticed that some students looked at her with interest. Maybe they had already heard of Kitty and her, maybe they had always looked at her, but she had never noticed, maybe there was another reason.

However, Marley didn't feel invisible anymore, she felt special. As if a grey haze had been removed from her and the world, which made everything appear brighter and more colorful. Just like in those detergent ads.

"I guess, someone's in a good mood today," somebody said next to her. Unique walking around as Wade, even though she would always be Unique to Marley, grinned at her knowingly. "Where did you leave Kitty? I thought you two were inseparable now? Not that I'm sad about her absence."

"Unique! You'll eventually get to like her someday," Marley said and opened her locker.

"Some things will be forever impossible."

"Not long ago I thought that too." But sometimes the impossible became possible.

"Don't listen to the wannabe-diva," a familiar voice suddenly said behind her.

Marley turned around and spotted a grinning Kitty, who was being stared at indignantly by Unique.

"You missed me, didn't you?" Kitty took a step in her direction and stroked her arm.

"Maybe a little bit," Marley replied.

"A little bit? Your messages gave me a different impression, Rose." Kitty came even closer and her hand wandered down to Marley's.

"No, no, no, just no!" they suddenly heard Unique saying. "I can't stand looking at this any longer. Do what you want to, but spare my eyes." And in saying so she turned and walked away.

"I guess she doesn't like me. Not that I really mind," Kitty said while looking up to Marley.

"That could probably be because of your not particularly friendly behavior towards her," Marley answered and raised an eyebrow.

"I am being friendly!" Kitty protested. "At least by my standards. And I'm still waiting for you to welcome me appropriately."

"Here?" Marley asked in surprise and glanced around nervously. "In front of all these people?"

"Are you by any chance afraid of them? Hey, I'm Kitty Wilde. I just need to glare at them once and they won't dare to come out of their hiding places for the rest of the year." With this she raised herself on tiptoes and placed a brief peck on Marley's lips.

"See? Everything's alright." She squeezed Marley's hand encouragingly. "We only have to watch out for Figgins, Brittany warned me about him."

In that moment the bell ringed announcing the beginning of a long and probably mostly boring school day.

"Okay, I have to go. See you later in arts and in Glee?"

"Yeah, sure," Marley nodded and smiled full of anticipation.

Kitty quickly kissed her on the cheek then she disappeared among the crowd of students heading over to their classrooms.

Marley looked after her and still couldn't fully grasp what was happening to her.

After a more or less successful school day, consisting of two boring math lessons, the hated arts class of Mrs. Harris, who couldn't find any positive expressions to describe Marley's drawing of a Japanese mountain scenery (according to her every 4-year old child could've drawn it better) and a history lesson, she was sitting – unfortunately – not in the choir room, but in a classroom Finn had reserved for the Glee club, even though he had to face a lot of obstacles caused by Sue. At least they didn't have to rehearse in the locker room again.

Kitty sat cross-legged and with folded arms behind her, because she needed "an overview over the situation".

"I'm happy you're with Kitty now," Brittany said next to her. Then she bent over to her with a conspiratorial expression and whispered: "Even though I planned to set her up with Lord Tubbington since they're both cats."

"I see…," Marley smiled in confusion and took a look at the door just as Jake entered the room.

Marley really had to talk to him. She didn't want to give up on their friendship and the thought that he was probably angry wouldn't stop bothering her.

He darted a grumpy side glance at her before he sat down next to Ryder.

Glee went by quickly and nothing special happened. Marley hoped that Mrs. Shuester would return soon since she couldn't stand Finn anymore. She usually was a very patient person, but he was slowly but surely starting to get on her nerves.

"Alright guys, that's it for today!" he called out and left the room.

The others followed him, but Marley remained seated, just like Jake, who was still staring into space sullenly. Kitty was the last one to leave the room. When she reached the door she turned around again and rolled her eyes in Jake's direction, but Marley knew she understood, even though she didn't want to show it.

Then the blonde walked through the door and Marley and Jake were alone now.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a while until Marley finally had the guts to get up and sit down next to him.

"I heard you're with Kitty now?" he more stated than actually asked. He didn't look at Marley and his voice sounded angry.

"Yes," she just replied and tried to find the right words. "Jake…I know you don't like the idea and believe me, I have not forgotten the way Kitty used to treat me, but I forgave her. Maybe you should do that, too."

Jake gave her a scoffing look. "Why should I do that? It's not like Kitty has ever apologized to me for anything."

"Jake, I don't expect you to like Kitty, but can't you at least accept her? Since were friends? We are, right?"

Finally Jake looked at her directly and in his eyes lay a trace of disappointment, which Marley hadn't noticed so far. "Marley, I do like you and I don't want you to get hurt. But why has it to be Kitty of all people? Since when are you interested in girls anyways?"

"I'm interested in _Kitty_," Marley answered and mulled it over for a few seconds. "I don't know why. But what I do know is that she's being honest. I can somehow feel it, you know?"

Jake was silent for a while and looked at the blackboard which had still written some Spanish vocabulary from the last lesson on it.

"Did you ever really like me after all?" he eventually asked bleakly.

"I did…but not like _that_," Marley answered carefully. "Still, you're important to me, so _please _let's stay friends." She looked at him pleadingly.

"Okay, okay," Jake replied and pretended to be annoyed, but Marley knew he wasn't and that she still meant a lot to him. "But keep Kitty at bay and don't let her mess with you."

Marley nodded smilingly then she hugged Jake, who also put his arms around her after a while to signalize that he wasn't mad anymore.

"Okay then, I have to go." She got up, took her backpack and headed towards the door. "See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow."

She felt relieved when she left the building and went to the parking lot, where she waited for her mother, who was supposed to be done with work soon.

Lost in thought she looked up into the sky, which was covered with blurry-grey clouds and didn't show a single sign of spring yet.

Suddenly she felt someone putting their arms around her from behind and she was just about to turn around with a start, when she heard Kitty's voice.

"I bet you thought I'd just be off, but I won't let you get away that easily," she mumbled against the fabric of Marley's jacket. "Everything alright with Jackie? Did he calm himself finally?"

"Yeah, we're okay now." Marley turned to face Kitty and smiled. "Thanks for waiting for me."

"Oh, I didn't do that for you, but only for my personal benefit, so I can do _this_," Kitty grinned and brought Marley's face down to her. She felt her warm breath against her skin before their lips met. Their kiss was somewhat longer and more passionate than it had been in the morning, yet it was over way too soon. She could continue like this for the rest of the day, but unfortunately she spotted her mom approaching from afar. She sighed and let go off Kitty, who looked dissatisfied.

"There's my mom."

"Really?" Kitty glanced over her shoulder before facing her again. "Tell her she has a bad timing." She walked towards her car, stopped halfway and looked back at Marley. "See you tomorrow!" She smiled one of her smiles that were only reserved for some special people and Marley smiled back at her. And once again the world seemed to have become a little better.

"See you tomorrow."

* * *

Restlessly Marley poked around in her rice as she was having dinner with her mom a while after.

"Mom?" she asked eventually and looked up from her food.

"Yes, darling?"

Marley gulped and tightened her grip on the fork. She had to tell her this. She'd feel much worse if she didn't, but it was way harder than she had expected. "I…I think I might be in love."

"I know."

Marley looked at her in surprise. "W-what? B-but why?"

"Marley, I'm your mum, I've known you for a while." She gave her an affectionate smile and reached out to stroke Marley's arm caringly. "So are you going to tell me who you 'might' be in love with?"

Marley's nervousness increased, her fingers started tingling and her stomach convulsed causing her to feel sick. She knew that her mom loved her, but the fact didn't make it any better in that moment.

"Uhm…," she said in a trembling voice. "It's not a boy…" She instantly lowered her head and stared at her food again. She had never known that rice could have different shapes.

"It is a girl?"

Marley nodded timidly.

"And who is the lucky one?" Her mom smiled when Marley met her eyes again.

"Kitty. Kitty Wilde," she answered.

Her mom's face suddenly darkened and Marley felt panic rising up inside her.

"Marley…you know I love you, no matter what and I'm happy that you're in love, be it a boy or a girl, but Kitty Wilde? Isn't she that small blonde cheerleader?"

Marley nodded.

"The one, who's always causing trouble in the cafeteria? I really don't want to repeat the expressions she used to describe me."

Marley nodded once again.

Good thing she never told her about her and Kitty's previous relationship. Her efforts of hiding her sorrows from others had finally paid off for once.

"She won't do that anymore, really, she's not as mean as you think."

"I'm sure of it, otherwise you wouldn't have fallen in love with her. Still, first she has to prove that she's different from what I think. Until then she's not allowed to set foot in this house."

"Okay… but you're not mad at me?"

"Of course not, you're my little girl after all."  
"Thanks mum." Marley got up and hugged her mother in relief. She was still worried, however, that she still didn't fully accepted Kitty.

First Unique and Jake, now her mom. No one could understand what Marley liked about Kitty. While Marley's world was being turned upside down, nothing had changed for them. She could only hope for Kitty to somehow convince her mom that she was a likable person.

When she was sitting in front of her rice again a trace of disenchantment mixed into the feeling of elation that had been a part of her for the last several days.


	14. I Think I Saw Love

_**A/N: First of all, thanks for 50+ followers! :) This chapter is short, I'm sorry, but I hope you like it anyways. The next update will probably take a little longer...(but not too long of course). Song is by FT Island (once again haha). Please leave a comment! :D**_

**Chapter 14 – I think I Saw Love**

Kitty glanced around nervously when she entered the kitchen area, a place where students were actually not allowed. Lunch break was about to end, so she would probably be late for afternoon practice. Sue would surely freak out, but the in two respects _bigger_ problem was standing only a few meters away from her now.

Mrs. Rose didn't seem to notice Kitty as she was cleaning a stack of trays from lunch. Kitty gulped and clenched her hands to calm herself. Why was that woman making her feel so intimidated?

If she had just been friendlier towards her in the past, then she wouldn't have to do all this right now. However, Mrs. Rose didn't have the best opinion of Kitty, as she knew from Marley.

Kitty took a few steps further into the room and stopped in a safe distance before she cleared her throat. "Mrs. Rose?"

Marley's mom turned around and didn't seem too surprised. She had probably expected Kitty to show up in front of her sooner or later.

"Look who's there," she said and eyed Kitty with a scrutinizing look. "That's got to be the first time you're calling me 'Mrs. Rose'."

Kitty tried to hold her gaze, but she couldn't keep it up for more than two seconds. What was wrong with that woman, had she always been that intimidating? Kitty had rarely felt more insecure than in this moment.

"Uhm…yeah…about the names and expressions I used…I'm sorry," she stammered. Where were the freaking sentences she had memorized for the whole last week? "Hereby I apologize for my inappropriate behavior towards you. I regret those incidents profoundly." Proud, because she had managed to formulate a coherent sentence, she finally dared to look up again, but Mrs. Rose was just eying her suspiciously.

"Have you by any chance memorized this?"

Kitty flinched and was just about to deny everything, but then she changed her mind.

"To be honest, yes," she admitted contritely. "But I am serious about it. I'm really sorry for what happened in the past and I promise you I won't cause any trouble from now on."

Mrs. Rose stared at her for a while and Kitty felt like she was shrinking more and more.

"I accept your apology," Mrs. Rose said eventually. "I can see that you're honest."

"Thank you," Kitty said in relief and for a moment she forgot how much she disliked using that word.

"But that's one thing. What's way more important is your relationship with Marley."

Kitty shifted her weight uncomfortably and nervously crossed her arms behind her back.

"What are your intentions?"

"My intentions?" Kitty asked in confusion. "I don't have any intentions, unless…you can call being in love an intention…" Geez, this talk was getting even more awkward.

"So you're really in love with Marley and you want to be with her? "

"Yes," Kitty nodded. "I think, she's the right one for me…"

Marley's mom sighed and her look was now less stern. "You know, I only want the best for Marley and if she wants to be with you, I don't want to get in the way, but I'm going to tell you one thing: if you hurt her, things might become quite nasty for you."

Kitty swallowed and nodded. She better kept her mouth shut right now.

Mrs. Rose also stopped talking and turned her attention back towards her work. Kitty assumed that it was a signal for her to leave and sneaked quietly to the door.

"Where do you think you're going!?"

Kitty winced and looked over her shoulder just as a shabby kitchen towel was thrown in her direction.

"If you keep me from working, you should at least help me to finish this," Mrs. Rose said with a commanding tone in her voice, so that Kitty didn't dare to raise any objections.

What the hell is wrong with students these days, why did they leave so much dirt and waste on their trays? Couldn't they eat properly?, Kitty thought morosely when she was standing next to Mrs. Rose and wiped a never ending stack of trays. Hopefully no one would see her like this.

"I'm actually quite nice, you know?" Marley's mom said after a while.

"Seriously?" Kitty wasn't so sure about it.

…

In the afternoon, at a moment when the school day's end seemed still to be a long way away, when the hallways were vacant and the classrooms crowded and students were either at their clubs or poring languidly over their books, a sudden crackle came from the speakers, followed by a short cough. Then a well-known voice began speaking.

"_Whazzup people, this is Kitty Wilde! I broke into Sue's office and captured the microphone for the speakers, so she's probably already on her way here to wring my neck, that's why I'll keep this short. From today on, if I hear somebody badmouthing about Mrs. Rose – if you don't know who I'm talking about, it's the 'fat-ass lunch lady' – you're going to get in trouble with me. Believe me, it won't be a pleasant experience. So do as I say and be nice to her, otherwise your future won't be as bright as you'd like it to…By the way, forget everything I said about Mrs. Rose, also that rumor about her putting my cat into the food…Alright, I better end it here, before-"_

Kitty's voice was cut off and you could only hear a number of curses and insults, most likely from Sue Sylvester, coming from the speakers. And suddenly everything was silent.

* * *

A few hours later, when it was already dark outside and a still cold wind was blowing through the streets, Kitty pressed the bell next to Marley's front door. Marley had texted her that her mom wasn't home, otherwise Kitty probably wouldn't have dared to come here.

Marley's house was indeed tiny. More of a shack than a house, still it appeared welcoming with its flower pattern curtains behind the windows and its small wild-growing front yard.

The door opened and Kitty was pulled into a hug. "Kitty? Are you okay?" she heard Marley's concerned voice.

"Now I am," Kitty replied softly and closed her eyes. It felt so good to be near her.

"Sue made me run almost ten miles and do like 100 push-ups and I'm back at the bottom again, but what the hell, I don't care."

Marley shut the door and caressed her cheek comfortingly, but then a wide grin appeared on her face. "My mom laughed herself silly about your announcement. She said it might had been a little too overdramatic, but she hadn't heard something funny like that in a long time", she giggled and Kitty grinned contently as well. "I think you managed to win her over."

"You think so? She didn't exactly give me that impression after our talk…"

"Don't worry, you'll get along eventually," Marley answered optimistically. "And now tell my about your talk already!"

"Don't be so curious," Kitty said defiantly as Marley pulled her up the stairs to her room.

After a while of talking, a delicious meal and a movie they were back in Marley's room. It was already quite late by now and Kitty was afraid Mrs. Rose would return soon.

"It's okay, she's not going to come back for another two hours or so," Marley said when she noticed Kitty glancing nervously at the clock. "Would you…maybe…like to stay overnight?" she then asked shyly.

Kitty looked at her in surprise and thought about it for a while, but actually there was not much to think about, she just had to avoid Mrs. Rose.

Marley lent her one of her pajamas and they got ready for bed. Kitty hadn't even noticed how tired she actually was. Marley turned off the light. A faint glow from the streetlamp fell through the gap between the curtains.

Marley crawled under her blanket and Kitty joined her. The brunette apologized for her small bed, but Kitty didn't mind of course, if it meant that she could be closer to Marley.

"Sleep well," Marley whispered and kissed her softly. Kitty smiled while being half asleep already and turned over. She hadn't shared a bed with someone in ages. Whenever there had been a cheerios-sleepover she had insisted on an own bed and as usually nobody disagreed with her. But now she suddenly felt different, like she knew where she belonged. She closed her eyes tightly and Marley put her arm around her. She was secure, she was protected. Even if she slept in a bed which was most certainly about to collapse, she didn't want to by anywhere else but here.

Eventually she drifted off to a sleep, which brought along one of her familiar dreams.

_A little blonde girl, about 6 years old and way too skinny for her age, sat screaming and crying in a corner of a dimmed room. Her hand was bleeding and her face was contorted with pain while tears were running down on it. From time to time, a tear or a drop of blood dripped on the floor, which was littered with garbage. On the other end of the room there was a big table standing in front of a lamp. Numerous laboratory utensils whose purpose was incomprehensible for the girl were arranged on the top. A small white pill fell off the table and rolled in the girl's direction. _

_Two figures, a man and a woman, both still pretty young, were bending over the table. The light coming from the front only revealed their silhouettes. _

_They ignored the girl's crying as if they wouldn't notice it. _

_Eventually her tears stopped flowing and she just gazed into space or at something no one but her could see until a shadow was cast on her. _

_She looked up, right into the eyes of an older girl. Marley smiled encouragingly and reached out for her hand. _


	15. Set Me Free

_**A/N: Song: Set me free by Younha**_

**Chapter 15 – Set Me Free**

Thoughtfully Marley looked up at the sky when she crossed the school yard and walked over to the main entrance. The sight was still unobstructed and the last remaining pale pink gleam of sunrise slowly vanished into a clear blue, but on the horizon you could already perceive an angry cloud bank which was announcing the next storm of this spring.

This spring had been characterized by storms, so Marley hoped that the weather would finally get better, it was already April after all.

"Hey beautiful girl," she heard a voice from behind and an instant later Kitty had caught up with her, put her arms around her and pressed a kiss on her lips. Marley smiled sheepishly as usual, took her hand and together they entered the building. They started almost all of their mornings that way and Marley was happy about that new habit that had become part of her everyday-life. Though a relationship with Kitty Wilde was far from ordinary.

Sometimes she still wondered if she hadn't just dreamed those last months, but then she thought back and remembered the times she had spent with Kitty and her doubts were forgotten. Kitty and her mom more or less got along by now, even though Mrs. Rose couldn't deny herself a dig at Kitty at times, so that the blonde felt still a little intimidated by her.

Kitty and Marley let go of one another and went to their respect classes. Marley, who had a hard time concentrating today, stared out of the window for most of the time and watched the first raindrops the wind blew against the pane.

When she was waiting for Kitty during break, Jake approached her and leaned deliberately coolly against the locker wall. With a broad grin he shoved his hand into his pocket and it looked like he was clasping something inside it. "Shall I show you something?" he asked.

"If you want to," Marley replied politely and feigned some interest.

"Alright, but don't tell anyone about it, got it?"

"Don't tell what?" Kitty asked when she suddenly appeared next to Marley. She gave her a warm smile and shot a displeased glare at Jake.

"Jake wants to show me something."

"Okay, let's see it, but leave on your pants please," Kitty answered and grinned sneeringly.

Jake looked at her angrily, however, he bit back a mean comment and instead pulled out his hand from his pocket, but kept it closed. He darted a peek at Marley to make sure he had her attention and then he slowly opened his fist.

On his palm lay a small transparent plastic bag, filled with a white substance which looked like tiny white crystals.

"I got it from some guy at the station, for free," he explained. "I'm not planning on using it, but maybe I can turn it into cash or something."

Marley kept staring at the little plastic bag wordlessly and it took her some time to realize that its content wasn't sherbet powder or bath salts, but most certainly real drugs.

Searching for help she looked at Kitty, who was alarmingly quiet. Marley startled when she noticed her expression. Stock-still she stared at the white powder on Jake's palm. Her face was vacant. Eventually she raised her eyes and looked right into Jake's. Her clenched hands started trembling and her knuckles protruded whitely underneath her skin.

And then it all happened incredibly fast.

She raised her hand swept the plastic bag off Jake's palm, so that it was catapulted between the feet of countless students until they couldn't see it anymore.

"Are you retarded or something?!" Jake yelled at her and his voice sounded desperate. The students around them stopped and eyed them curiously, but Marley barely noticed it.

Jake was about to run after the little plastic bag, but then Kitty's fist hit him right in the face. In surprise and with wide-eyed he turned towards Kitty, who was staring at him with hate-filled eyes. Now Marley knew how Kitty looked like if she _really_ hated someone, but she wished she had never caught sight of it.

Jake opened and closed his mouth several times, but it seemed like he wasn't able to come up with an expression that could describe his rage in that moment.

"Why did you do that?" Kitty asked in a trembling voice as if she was about to cry. But there wasn't a single tear in her eyes. The hate on her face mixed with fury and she started punching Jake like mad.

"Why did you do that?!" she screamed at it and hit him again. And again and again and again. "Why?!"

Jake tried to defend himself, but in this moment Kitty had developed strength that no one had thought she could possess and so she inexorably kept punching him. Her face was contorted by hate and exertion and her voice sounded almost insane.

Marley just stood behind them like petrified and didn't understand what was happening. Her eyes widened in horror when Jake's nose started bleeding. Why was Kitty doing this? Kitty…was that girl still Kitty after all? She had to do something.

"Kitty!" she yelled and tried to get a hold of Kitty's arm, but there was too much power in her punches, so that she got Kitty's elbow rammed in her face instead. She gave off a cry of pain and let go off her arm. Tears welled up in her eyes, not for the pain, but because she felt so helpless.

"Kitty!" she shouted desperately once again, because she couldn't think of anything else to do. "Stop it! Please!"

Suddenly Kitty halted right in the middle of her movement and for a moment everything was silent, except for the rain's soft drumming. Jake was cowering in front of Kitty's raised fist, his arms protectively in front of his face and the motionless students surrounding them looked horrified. This wasn't one of those usual fights you could see almost daily at school. This was something much more profound, something that had caused existential fears in Kitty, which were completely in control of Kitty's consciousness. Everyone could sense it. And no one knew how to deal with it.

Slowly, infinitely slowly, how it seemed to Marley, Kitty turned her head and met her eyes. Fury and hate had vanished, what was left, was fear. Only fear. For a moment, Kitty stared at Marley as if she didn't recognize her. Then realization hit her and she slowly began to lower her arm.

"Kitty Wilde!" an angry voice suddenly yelled and all heads turned. Flanked by Sue and Mr. Shuester, Mr. Figgins came running along the corridor. Mr. Shuester's expression showed disappointment, Sue's a mix of irritation and mischievousness and Mr. Figgins just appeared to be dissatisfied that he had been interrupted in his coffee break.

Kitty eventually lowered her arm completely and hung her head. Mr. Shuester rushed over to Jake, who was holding his bleeding nose and led him away.

"In my office. Right now," Mr. Figgins growled through his clenched teeth. "You too", he said to Marley and turned to go. Kitty tagged along after him with her head still lowered and Marley followed them.

"Sit down and wait here," Mr. Figgins said when they entered his office.

Marley and Kitty got seated on the couch and none of them said a single word. Kitty apparently didn't want to talk and Marley wouldn't know what to say anyway. What had gotten into Kitty? There had to be a reason for her behavior. But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't come up with an explanation.

About ten minutes later Mr. Figgins returned, accompanied by Mr. Shuester and Sue. He collapsed into his chair and eyed the girls.

"Sue found the drugs," he began and Sue let the plastic bag sway affirmatively. "Maybe I should use it for my protein shakes," she mumbled to herself.

"This belongs to Jake Puckerman, right?" Figgins asked.

Kitty didn't respond, only Marley finally looked up and dared to face the teachers. She nodded hesitantly, which caused a sad expression on Mr. Shuester's face.

"I'm gonna go inform the police now, then he can finally join the rest of his family in prison."

"We're not going to call the police, Sue!" Mr. Shuester started pacing back and forth around the office. "There has to be another option."

"He…he didn't even bought that stuff," Marley chimed in. "He said someone at the station gave it to him for free. He didn't even intend to do the drugs, I think he just wanted to show off a little…"

"This incident will definitely have consequences ," Mr. Figgins said. "I will talk to Jake about the details, when he gets out of the nurse's room. What's much more important right now is in fact the behavior of this young lady here." He shot a disgruntled glance at Kitty. "Even if Jake has committed a mistake, it doesn't mean you can physically attack him!"

Kitty still didn't make a move. Figgins sighed and wiped his forehead. "You were more conversable on your former visits here…I guess I have no other choice but to call your parents."

"No!" Kitty suddenly burst out and she raised her head for the first time. Her fingers were clenching the hem of her skirt while she pleadingly looked at Figgins. "Please don't. I'll accept every kind of punishment, but please don't tell my parents about this."

"Why not?" Mr. Shuester asked. "Maybe it'd be more comfortable for you, if they were here."

Sue sneered. "I don't think they want to show up here _again. _They are almost regulars by now. Mind if leave? I have to take care of the evidence." With these words she put the little bag into the pocket of her tracksuit and disappeared from the office.

"I won't inform your parents," Mr. Figgins said after a moment's consideration. "But in return you have to go to Mrs. Pillsbury's-"

"Mrs. Shuester's," Mr. Shuester corrected him.

Mr. Figgins shot a deprecating stare at him and continued: "To _Mrs. Shuester's _counseling sessions for the next four weeks. If I find out that you're not doing it..." He let his hand hover over the phone on his desk. "I know the number by heart."

Kitty nodded and lowered her head again. "I understand," she mumbled.

"Alright, then that's it for now."

"Not yet," Mr. Shuester chimed in again. "Kitty, is there a reason you punished Jake like that? You know we in Glee-club want to solve our problems peacefully."

"Crystal. Because of the crystal," Kitty muttered.

"Those drugs are crystal?"

Kitty just nodded.

"How do you know that?"

Kitty remained silent and after a while of waiting Mr. Shuester capitulated with a sigh and left the office as well.

"You may go now," Figgins said while he took out a prospectus of some supermarket from a drawer and started reading the special offers.

Marley and Kitty got up hesitantly and walked out on the corridor in a slow pace. The corridor was abandoned, because the break had long ended. Marley stopped and turned to face Kitty. Nothing was left of the hate and rage which had surrounded the blonde before. Instead she suddenly seemed incredibly tiny and lost.

"Kitty…" Marley took a step closer, yet she didn't touch her. "It's…it's okay, if you don't want to talk, I won't ask…Do you rather want to be alone?"

"No, don't go," Kitty said in a weak voice. "Please, stay with me." Her head was still lowered as she continued: "I'll tell you everything, but not now…soon…I can't do it yet…" Finally she looked up and her eyes met Marley's. Marley had never seen Kitty cry. The sight of her gleaming eyes and her trembling lips sent a sting into her heart and she noticed that her sight was blurring as well.

"It's okay," she whispered and finally, finally she closed the distance and the unfamiliar strangeness between them and enfolded Kitty in her arms. Again and again she stroked her hair and whispered calming words into her ear, while Kitty was sobbing and clinging onto her like a drowning person clung onto the only plank in the whole ocean.

They remained in that position until Kitty's tears eventually dried up and only the endless pattering of the rain was filling the silence.


	16. Take Me Away

_**A/N: For all those preople who have wondered about Kitty's past: It's finally revealed! Song for this chapter: Take me away by U-Kiss. (Sorry, if the writing is crappy T.T)**_

_In a world full of rain_

_I walked without an umbrella..._

_Just following your eyes...those eyes..._

**Chapter 16 – Take Me Away**

„Do you really want me to be here?"

"Yes," Kitty answered determinedly and looked around the office feeling a little uneasy.

"Thanks for coming."

"This is for you. So of course I came." Marley, who was seated on the chair next to her, took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"It'll be alright." She smiled and Kitty relaxed a little.

They were sitting in Emma's office waiting for her. In concern Kitty eyed the desk, which was teeming with square angles and parallelism. This wasn't the first time she was sitting here. She had already endured a whole week filled with counseling sessions and even if she considered Emma fairly tolerable – despite her constant cleaning attacks – she had remained incommunicative for most of the time. But today would be different, she was going to tell Marley about her past, no matter how hard it would be. She deserved the truth.

"Sorry, I'm late," Emma warbled as she entered the office and took a seat behind her desk. She curiously eyed the girls for a while, before she addressed Kitty. "So you really want to stick to our agreement and tell her everything?"

"Yes."

"Great. Is it okay for you, if we start right away?"

"Yes." Kitty gulped and placed her hands under her tights nervously. She had promised it. She had to tell her the truth. Don't back down.

"You know Kitty is adopted, right?" Emma asked straightforwardly and faced Marley.

"Yeah," Marley replied visibly confusedly, since she didn't have a clue what Emma was getting at.

"Do you know why?"

"Because her biological parents didn't care well for her? But Kitty doesn't remember anything."

"Is this true, Kitty?" Emma asked.

Kitty lowered her gaze and her fingernails pierced into the cushion of her chair.

"No…I'm sorry."

She sighed and restlessly moved on her chair. She probably wasn't going to find a comfortable position anytime soon.

"In fact…in fact I do remember them pretty well." And then she started talking like she hadn't done in a long time:

_When I was born, my father was already addicted. My mother became it shortly after. They were addicted to drugs, to crystal, to be precise. They were still young, they went to parties and wanted to enjoy their lives, but none of that can excuse their actions. Not just theirs, but also my life only revolved around dope. We lived in an outlying, half ruinous house. This was the place where they produced their drugs, which they sold off later to finance their own consumption. The only visitors we ever had were drug dealers and junkies. I rarely met other family members since they preferred to close their eyes rather than helping us. I hated that house so much. I didn't have any toys, I didn't have enough to eat and my only friends were the rats living in our basement. I pretty much never left the house. I was a prisoner._

_No one took care of the household, no one of the garden and no one of me. There are only a few moments I remember clearly, but that is more than enough. My parents didn't hate me. They just felt indifferent about me. Everything that mattered were their drugs and their production. Day by day they locked themselves inside their lab and left me alone. I didn't have a family. _

_Once, when I was five years old, I woke in the middle of the night and saw my mother bending over my filthy mattress. She looked dark and threatening and I was afraid that she was going to beat me, even though she had never done that before. But instead she stroked my hair and smiled at me. For the first time in my life I was hopeful that she maybe did love me somehow, but then I saw the expression in her eyes. They were empty…overcast, she was in another world. And then I knew that the drugs made her do that and that she actually didn't felt anything but indifference for me. _

_Like that I "lived" until I was six years old. I felt like I wasn't existing at all. I stayed in the background and remained silent most of the time. I never ever tried to run away from home, since I didn't know that life could be different. It was normal to me. Until I accidentally hurt myself on a piece of broken glass one day. The cut was quite deep and my whole hand was already covered in blood when I screamed and cried while slamming against door which was always locked. Eventually it was opened by my father. Even though he noticed my injury, he didn't say anything at all and just told me to wait in a corner until they were finished. I sat there for hours, shocked and afraid, because it wouldn't stop bleeding, but my parents rather cared about their drugs. They simply ignored me and left me alone. _

_Eventually I fainted and woke up at a hospital. My parents had brought me there, probably not because they were worried about me, but because they didn't want to get in trouble. I can't recall all the details, but in the end the whole truth was revealed, since the doctors informed the police after they saw my poor health. My parents went to prison for a while, but I know that they didn't have to stay there for long. They lost their custody for me and since nobody of my relatives, who I barely knew anyway, wanted to care for me, they send me to a children's home. My life didn't really get any better there. There were just too many kids, so that I was still more or less ignored. I didn't have any friends and more and more I retired from the world. My parents didn't try to contact me one single time. Sometimes I really wished they had hated me. Hate would've still been better than no emotion at all. Better than complete coldness. _

_I spent one year at the children's home and never ever talked about my past. I just waited, even though I didn't know what for. They already told me at the beginning that I barely had a chance of getting adopted at my age and I didn't even want to get adopted since the word "family" only meant horrible things to me. But then my parents came there. My real parents, who deserve that term. They visited the home several times and I kept hidden most of the time, yet my mum always discovered me and gave me a smile. She wasn't able to have kids, so they wanted to adopt a child and they chose me, even though I still don't know why. They say they just knew it was me when they saw me for the first time. Even my past didn't scare them off. _

_From that moment on my life started. At the beginning I was withdrawn and dismissive, but as I realized that my mum and dad were completely different than I was used to, I began to understand what it means to be loved. However, I wasn't able to overcome my past. I displayed behavioral problems, had trouble at school and couldn't get along well with other kids. I worried my parents a lot. Finally they send me to a psychologist and I was in therapy for several years until I gained a better control over myself. Despite everything my parents have always supported me and I'm incredibly thankful for that. Even though I will never be able to change my past, I can at least decide about my future…_

For a while there was only silence.

Kitty raised her gaze and looked at Marley. They brunette met her gaze with tears in her eyes.

"Kitty," she finally uttered. "I…I don't know what to say…oh my god…"

"You don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to know." Kitty took Marley's hand and didn't mind Emma, who was already facing her pamphlets. "I'm sorry, it took so long."

"You told me, that's the most important thing," Marley replied and wiped her eyes. "How…how could you stand all that pain?"

"I didn't have a choice…and moreover…I was still hopeful somehow that everything would get better some day. And it got better."

"When you met your parents?"

"When I met you." Kitty smiled and caressed Marley's cheek. Marley closed her eyes for a moment and sighed.

"I guess I have to think about all this for a while," she said eventually. "But no matter what, I will always be there for you. From now on you can tell me everything, okay?"

"Okay."

"Found it!" Mrs. Shuester suddenly exclaimed and turned around again. She handed Marley a pamphlet and smiled contently.

"So your girlfriend got adopted, 'cause her parents were junkies?" Marley read out the title.

"What the…"

Did that woman write those herself?

* * *

On this day Kitty had invited Marley over for dinner, but unlike usual, the atmosphere was quite gloomy and both girls poked around in their food without appetite.

"Is something wrong with you two?" her dad eventually asked in concern.

"I told Marley," Kitty mumbled hesitantly.

"Told her what…oooooh I understand." Uneasy he looked at her mum, who always knew what to do in case of doubt.

"So? What do you think about it?" she asked Marley.

"I don't know how to say it…I just feel so sorry for Kitty," Marley said.

"Stop pitying me," Kitty answered more brusquely than she had intended, but then she continued in a softer voice: "As you can see, my life isn't that shitty anymore, which is also because I have you."

Marley smiled slightly and Kitty's parents exchanged meaningful glances before they got up and disappeared into the kitchen.

"I don't want this to be our only topic from now on, du you understand? What's past is past and I prefer to enjoy my life with you instead of thinking about those horrible things."

"You're right," Marley agreed and kissed her on the cheek. She was about to start eating again when she suddenly lowered her fork. "There is one more thing I'd like to know," she said. "What about…them, I mean…"

"You mean if they are still alive?"  
Marley nodded and eyed Kitty curiously.

"Yes, they are, but I don't know where they live or in what circumstances and I don't even want to know. They probably still live in that tiny dump which is fortunately far, far away from here and mess around in their lab. I never tried to contact them and apparently they have no interest in me, which I'm glad about. They don't belong to my life anymore and they never did."

Marley was silent and gave her a long, thoughtful look, which signalized Kitty that there were more discussions about that topic yet to come.

Later in the evening Kitty was lying on her bed and had a halfhearted try at her math homework while Marley was sitting at her desk, so that she could only see her from behind. Usually Kitty never had any problems with math, but today she just wasn't able to concentrate. Again and again her gaze got lost in her cover's floral pattern before it wandered over to the brunette. Kitty eventually let her head drop onto the book and ran her fingers through her hair. "What are you reading?" she asked Marley.

"Just the pamphlet Mrs. Shuester gave me," Marley said and turned the chair a little, so that she could look at Kitty.

"So? Anything useful in there?"

"It is normal, if your girlfriend doesn't want to talk about the topic," Marley read out. "Give her some time, but don't let her block out memories and thoughts."

Kitty rolled her eyes and straightened herself. "Don't bother me with that psycho stuff, I had to listen to that often enough," she grumbled.

"Even if your girlfriend dismisses it as 'psycho stuff', you should get her to deal with those things," Marley continued reading and grinned.

"You're kidding, right? That's not written in there!" Kitty complained, jumped off the bed and snatched the pamphlet from Marley's hand. "Alright…it _is _written in there…where the hell does she get those from?" She frowned, but then she just shrugged and threw the pamphlet on her bed. "There are more important things," she grinned and spun Marley's chair, so that she was now fully facing her. She sat down on her lap and put her arms around Marley's neck. "Thank you for being there for me," she whispered and leaned her forehead against Marley's.

"I'll always be." Marley kissed Kitty's forehead, the tip of her nose and finally her lips. She seized Kitty's hips and pulled her a little closer. Kitty smiled in between two kisses and strangely she was glad that her past was the way it was. Otherwise everything might have turned out completely different and she wouldn't be here with Marley right now.

"If you had thought about it a little more, you could've find out by yourself that _those people _are some totally crazy junkies," Kitty said after a while.

"Huh, why?"

"I mean, are there really any sane people who'd name their daughter Kitty?"


	17. Have You Heard?

_**A/N: Hi guys, I'm really sorry for updating so rarely lately, but I'm seriously lacking of motivation at the moment. I hope it will pass soon, since I have actually some nice ideas and already know the ending of the story. So pleace keep supporting me! (maybe it'll get better when Glee is back.)**_

_**this chapter has a lighter mood and I have to admit that it's a little cheesy, but it's a lovestory after all, right? ;) The song for this chapter and whose translation I also used here is "Have you heard?" by Standing Egg. You can find it on yt, if you search for "들어줄래". Now have fun and leave a comment please. ^_^ (this goes especially to my 66 followers :P) **_

**Chapter 17 – Have You Heard?**

„Do I really have to be here?" Kitty complained yet again and looked at Marley pleadingly. Marley rolled her eyes and just dragged Kitty along with her. "Stop making such a fuss right now, it's Unique's Birthday after all!"

Kitty grumbled reluctantly, yet she didn't say anything, but followed Marley, who was walking towards the front door.

Marley lightly shook her head and grinned. She was well aware that Kitty was actually excited to see everyone, after all holidays had started and the weather was more than appealing for a garden party.

"Looks like they're not exactly short on cash," Kitty commented when they were standing in front of the door. And she was right. Unique and her parents lived in a house which was probably several times bigger than Marley's. The façade was plastered in a pure white shade and every window had a flower box in front of it.

Marley ringed and shortly after they heard steps approaching.

"If she's wearing one of these granny-diva outfits again, then I'm off, seriously," Kitty whispered. Then the door got opened and a beaming Unique welcomed them.

"Oh. My. God." Kitty eyed Unique incredulously. "Seriously?"

"What? Don't you like my outfit? Floral patterns are totally hot this season," she replied visibly offended and crossed her arms.

Kitty wrinkled her nose. "But some people tend to exaggerate a little, you know?"

Marley watched them with a grin on her face. Unique really had exaggerated a little bit. From her barrette to the dress to her to her shoes everything was flowery and not exactly matching in color, but to her, Kitty's and Unique teasing each other was way funnier – and they still did it every time they saw each other. Yet she was sure that they kind of started liking each other, otherwise Kitty probably wouldn't have made such an effort to help her choosing a present for Unique.

"You look great!" Marley said eventually and hugged Unique. "Happy Birthday." She handed her the nicely wrapped present – a bracelet with floral ornaments, so they definitely chose the right one. "It's from Kitty and me."

"Thank you," Unique said and was back in a better mood. She even casted a friendly glance at Kitty.

They followed her into the house and out again into the garden, where everything was already prepared. Tables full of food and drinks were positioned under the old fruit trees and strings of lights were taut between their branches, so the scenery was probably going to look amazing when it would get dark later. Unique's tail-wagging Labrador Janey ran towards them and nosed Marley's hand.

"What the hell – why is everyone carrying weed on their heads?" Kitty asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot, here." Unique handed each of them a flower garland. "I put a lot of effort in it, so you match my outfit, which means you have to be careful with it."

"Wow, it looks so nice," Marley said excitedly and put her flower garland, which mostly consisted of yellow-orange gerbera, on her head.

There flowers don't have a secret meaning or something like that, have they?" Kitty asked suspiciously, as she was adjusting her garland, which was made of strikingly many yellow carnations, on her head.

"No way, of course not!" Unique reassured, but then she winked at Marley.

They walked over to the other gleeks and sat down on one of the benches. Marley couldn't hold back a grin as her gaze dropped on Jake and Ryder, both wearing a flowers on their heads. They felt visibly uncomfortable and scratched their heads again and again, but they didn't complain.

"Finally you have the opportunity to act out your female site," Kitty teased mockingly while grabbing a fruit skewer from the table. She started chewing contentedly and didn't care about their angry stares.

The evening proceeded pleasantly and Marley was happy about seeing everyone again. While eating she noticed that Kitty kept staring at her in a mesmerized manner. "Something wrong?" Marley asked insecurely. "Is there something on my face?"

"No, why're you asking?" Kitty asked avoiding the issue.

"Because you keep staring at me weirdly."

"Yeah…you know that thing on your head doesn't look to bad actually…" She seemed to think about something for a moment and casted a glance at Unique, Jake and Ryder, who were watching them curiously. "Honestly speaking, you look beautiful," she directly looked into Marley's eyes for a second to signalize her that she was being honest, then she averted her gaze bashfully.

Marley knew that Kitty didn't like to make confessions like these in public since it was revealing her inner feelings, so it made her even happier to hear that. "Thank you." She put her arm around Kitty's shoulder and placed a kiss on her cheek. Unique brought up a hand in front of her eyes demonstratively and wrinkled her nose. Then she got up and cleared her throat.

"Alright guys, time for some duets!" she exclaimed enthusiastically and clapped her hands.

"Oh no, whyyyy?" Kitty complained while everyone else seemed rather excited.

"For a change you've got free choice of partners," Unique said and shot a brief glance in Ryder's direction. Marley knew that she only set up this whole thing, so that she could sing with Ryder.

"So? Who's your partner?" One of the 'strong' voices?" Kitty asked ironically.

"Kitty, you're my partner of course! I don't care about strong voice or not as long as we harmonize well with each other, which we definitely do."

Kitty bit her lower lip and nodded. "Uhmm."

"And moreover…" Marley bend over to Kitty's ear. "I love your voice."

Kitty grinned and tugged a strand of hair behind Marley's ear. "So, what do you want to sing?"

"How about the song you were singing in the shower recently?"

"Wait – you heard that?" Kitty asked surprised. "Wow, you're not even safe in the shower nowadays…but it's okay, let's sing that song."

Brittany and Sam were the first ones to sing and – once again – they performed a song by Britney Spears. Like all songs they sang that evening it was an acoustic version; Jake and Sam played the guitar and Ryder had brought parts of his drum set.

When it was Marley's and Kitty's turn the sun had already begun to set. Sam started playing the intro and Marley took a glance at Kitty, who was surprisingly smiling and seemed completely relaxed.

_If you have time, would you like to share it with me for a little while?_

_Don't worry, it's just for a little while. _

It was their first duet since superheroes-week, which felt like ages ago. Why hadn't they sung together again since then? It was wonderful.

_Now put on your earphones on each of your ears and listen to me for a moment._

_This song tells what I've been dying to tell you. _

They didn't take turns at singing. They just sang simultaneously, together, they didn't drown out one another, it felt like they were singing with only one voice.

_That first time when you leant your head on my shoulder, _

_That time I knew all of my feelings towards you. _

_Now let me make this confession, _

_I love you. _

She loved her. The girl with yellow carnations sticking in her loose blonde hair, which was gleaming golden in the light of sunset. The girl who was looking at her at those words as if she felt the same way.

_All this time you would never know,_

_But I'm dying to say this:_

_You are my destiny. _

_Now would you give me the pleasure to share your remaining life with me? _

_Don't you ever try to refuse my feelings or my heart will ache._

_So if you feel the same as me,_

_Then grab my hand before this song ends. _

She took her hand and they danced around each other. Marley looked into Kitty's eyes, Kitty looked into Marley's eyes. She didn't think of anything, she just _felt_.

_I never once believed in fate,_

_But you've changed me, you made me believe._

Marley felt like intoxicated and wished for the song never to end. It was perfect. For the first time in a long time something was perfect. The sunset and its orange-pinkish gleam, the bird's silhouettes flying across the sky, Sam and Jake walking around between the fruit trees with their guitars, Ryder's little drum set amidst countless daisies, the flowers on her goldish yellow hair, which was slightly swaying in the warm evening breeze. Kitty, who was holding her hand so tightly.

_Even though I can't tell you everything through this song,_

_But I wish you could at least feel my love for you._

When the last sounds faded away Marley pulled Kitty towards her and kissed her. She didn't care that everyone was watching, in that moment it was only the two of them.

Clapping and cheers brought her back to reality and she stepped aside. Unique seemed a little upset, probably because she was afraid they might steal the show from her.

"Seems like they liked it," Kitty said in a hushed voice and giggled in a completely untypical way.

"I liked it too."

They returned to their places and listened to the remaining performances. It had gotten dark in the meantime and Unique had turned on the lights, which were part of her grand finale with Ryder. Marley barely noticed all of it. She had put her arm around Kitty's shoulder and the blonde was leaning into her with her eyes closed. While Unique and Ryder were singing, Marley was occupied with keeping the gnats away. "I will always protect you," she whispered into her ear. "Even if it's only from a few gnats right now."

Kitty didn't say anything, instead she just smiled, but that was already enough for Marley. Sometimes word weren't necessary to express everything.

Unique and Ryder finished their performance and Unique suggested watching a movie, since it was starting to get chilly. Everyone left for the house, but Kitty and Marley just remained in the exact same position. Unique turned towards them and wanted to say something, however, she probably changed her mind and followed the other gleeks.

"Aren't you cold?" Marley asked after a while.

"Not as long as you're with me," Kitty murmured. "But the gnarls are becoming annoying."

"Stupid critters," Marley addressed the gnarls angrily, but they obviously didn't really mind the offence. Marley got up and reached for Kitty's hand.

"You want to go inside?"

"No, not yet, just walk around a little to get rid of those gnarls."

Holding hands they wandered around the huge garden and dwelled on their thoughts.

"I think I'm experiencing a déjà-vu," Kitty eventually stated.

"Déjà-vu?"

"Everyone's inside the house, only you and me are outside…it kinda reminds me of New Year's Eve. Actually I'd have to ask you why you don't want to be with your friends?"

"Because I prefer being with you," Marley replied.

"Did you think so on New Year's Eve as well?" Kitty asked curiously.

Marley stopped her steps and thought about it for a while. Insects were buzzing above the pond next to her and somewhere a frog croaked. "Probably yes, even though I couldn't explain it then."

"Do you remember the moment when we watched the fireworks together?" Kitty asked while she walked over to a bed of rose-bushes.

"Yeah, of course I do," Marley answered and followed her.

"That was the moment I realized I'm in love with you." Kitty took Marley's hands and looked up to her. Her eyes were glowing in the darkness and the yellow pinks on her head seemed almost white. Marley didn't know what to say, so she just kept silent for now. She thought about the happenings of that night again. Now, more than six months later, she saw everything in an altogether different light than she had back then. "Anyways, why are we standing in this bed of roses?" she then asked.

"Cause you're Rose, Rose," Kitty replied grinningly.

"If that's so, then we could as well be standing in a room full of little kittens…or full of Hello Kitty stuff."

"Marley, I'm seriously trying to be romantic here, don't ruin it," Kitty pouted. "I thought you're into that kind of stuff." Kitty stuck out her lower lip and gave her a deprecating stare.

"Oh, shut up." Marley bend over and kissed her gently. Then she stroked back Kitty's hair and looked at her. She was so beautiful looking up to her like that, her eyes full of trust and…love…or something like that. Marley took a mental photograph, so that she'd be able to always remember that moment.

"I love you."

Kitty looked at her for a second before a smile spread over her face.

"I love you, too."

Then she put her arms around Marley's neck, tiptoed a little and picked up where they had left off.

Besides from the birds which were still crossing the night sky above them, no one saw the two girls, who had just confessed their love for each other for the first time.

_**A/N2: I seriously thought about using this as the last sentence of this chapter: "...and Jacob Ben Israel" (hiding somewhere in the bushes). But it would've kinda ruined the atmosphere. ;)**_


	18. Always Be Mine

_**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but it is important for the story (like actually all the chapters hehe). I hope you enjoy it and thank you for all the new follows and favs this story got, it's really amazing. :D I hope they're not actually going to pair Kitty up with Artie. :/ I mean, did you see the look at her face last episode when she danced with Marley. I never saw her looking at someone else like that. since I pretty much said my goodbyes to Faberry (I'm realistic, it's pretty much impossible now), I want at least Karley to be happening! it's so sad... :'(**_

_**Alright, I better stop writing nonsense now. ;) Btw, the song for this chapter is Always be mine by FT Island (it's even in English (with big accent lol)) Please review. ^^ P.S.: this chapter is inspired by the movie Yes or No 2.  
**_

* * *

**Chapter 18 – Always Be Mine**

Sometimes there were still moments when Kitty hated herself for the way she had treated Marley in the past. It simply overcame her and the only thing she wanted to do in those moments was to hide in a corner and never come out again. Right now she was experiencing such a moment while looking at Marley's peacefully sleeping face.

It was a day at the end of August. Marley's birthday to be exact. Kitty had hit the road early in the morning to surprise Marley. Surprisingly Mrs. Rose hadn't raised any objections and had let her into the house with an almost scaring friendly expression. Kitty knelt at the bedside and rested her chin on her hands, so that her face was on the same level as Marley's. The brunette in- and exhaled barely audible and from time to time a slight smile flashed over her face. She was probably dreaming. Hopefully not about Jake.

Kitty sighed. The more she watched her girlfriend the more she blamed herself for everything she had done. She felt like smashing her head against the wall, but wouldn't only look ridiculous, more importantly it would wake Marley from her sleep.

"Kitty?" a sleepy voice suddenly asked. Marley blinked a few times and smiled. "What are you doing here at this time?"

"I heard it's someone's birthday today," Kitty replied with a grin and caressed Marley's cheek. Then she bent over and literally kissed every square inch of her face. "Happy birthday."

"This is already the best birthday ever," Marley said and pulled Kitty on top of her. "I'm so happy you're here." She kissed Kitty surprisingly passionately for this time of the day and hugged her so tightly that she almost strangled her.

Then someone knocked at the door and Kitty was glad that Mrs. Rose had learned to wait a few seconds before opening the door by now since she principally never waited for a "come in". This habit had led to several awkward situations in the past Kitty didn't want to recall right now. When the door eventually was opened Kitty was already standing back upright and had adopted an innocent expression, but she was still busy smoothing down her clothing.

"Happy birthday, my little girl," Mrs. Rose said and brought in a cake with burning candles. She sat down on the bed, which gave off a threatening creak, but against Kitty's expectations didn't show any further signs of collapsing. "This is the first time I'm not the first person to congratulate you," Mrs. Rose said with a trace of melancholy in her voice. Kitty wondered if she was supposed to feel guilty, but if it wasn't about Marley, this wasn't exactly one of her qualities.

"Mum…" Marley smiled soothingly and gave her a hug. Her hair only just missed one of the candle's flames causing Kitty to look around for something to extinguish a possible fire. What was wrong with the Rose household? Kitty always wondered why everything still went off quite well despite the house's weak condition and all those near misses happening here all the time.

"Time to make a wish." Mrs. Rose pointed at the cake and Marley obviously thought about something for a few seconds. Then she eventually looked at Kitty and smiled before blowing out the candles.

Shortly after the three of them had breakfast, which consisted of that very cake much to Kitty's displeasure (seriously, how can you eat cake for breakfast?), still she didn't complain, even though somewhere inside her she heard the voice of the old Kitty, who had never left out any opportunity to cause trouble. In the meantime however the voice had become too quiet for Kitty to notice.

After they finished eating Mrs. Rose handed Marley a packet wrapped in paper, which looked like it had already been used at least once. Kitty couldn't deny the possibility. Marley opened the present carefully and smoothed down the paper, probably so she could use it again for her mum's birthday.

"Wow, awesome!" Happily Marley took out a pile of clothes from the package. The pieces of clothing carried designer tags, but of course everyone knew it was just secondhand stuff. However Marley seemed to be really happy and she hugged her mum tightly. Kitty watched her smilingly, yet she also felt a bit sad that even on her birthday the Rose-family could only afford so little.

"Kitty, what about your present?" Mrs. Rose asked.

"Later," Kitty replied. There was seriously no need for Mrs. Rose to witness everything.

Kitty and Marley spent the remaining morning and the afternoon at a small lake nearby since swimming and relaxing was simply the best thing to do on a hot day in August. Kitty had chosen a secluded place, so that she could be alone with Marley for most of the time.

While Kitty was lying stretched out on her towel Marley suddenly sat upright and just stared at her.

"What's wrong?" Kitty asked and squinted against the slowly setting sun.

Marley smiled and reached for her hand. "Thank for today, I had a great time."

Kitty grinned. Marley didn't even know that the best was yet to come. Hopefully their friends from Glee were already at her house preparing the party. But there was one thing she had to do first.

"Don't be too sure yet. Here, open your present first," Kitty said and straightened herself. Then she rummaged around in her bag for a while until she pulled out and small black box. She handed it to Marley hoping she would like it. "Happy Birthday."

Kitty expectantly watched Marley, whose eyes widened in amazement as she opened the present. "Kitty…wow…thank you!" she stammered and took out a necklace from the box. Kitty had spent a whole lot of time and nerves (and money, but she better didn't talk about that in front of Marley) to find it. It was a silver necklace with two pendants – a rose and a kitten.

"So, do you like it?" Kitty asked anxiously since Marley didn't show any further reaction.

"Yes, I do!" Marley looked up and smiled even cuter than she usually did. "It's beautiful…I don't know what to say…just thank you so much."

"You want to put it on?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Kitty put the necklace around Marley's neck and looked at her. "Incredibly beautiful," she stated.

"Who, me or the necklace?" Marley asked with a mischievous grin.

"Let me think about it for a while." Kitty scratcher her chin and adopted a thoughtful expression. "I guess both."

Marley bend over and grabbed her hands. "I will never take it off again," she whispered just a few inches from Kitty's lips. "I love you." Then she closed the distance between them and Kitty closed her eyes to enjoy the moment.

"There is one more thing," she eventually mumbled and pulled back a little.

She reached for her bag once again and pulled out a plain white envelope without any label or decoration. Kitty thoughtfully looked at the envelope and her expression became serious.

"What's wrong?" Marley asked in concern. "What is this?"

"This is a letter to you, Marley," Kitty answered and looked up to meet Marley's gaze. "Marley…I'm really happy to be with you and I never want to lose you. I believe you feel the same, but…if you ever doubt whether you still love me or if you thinking about breaking up with me, then read this letter. No matter if it's in ten years or tomorrow already."

"Kitty, what are you talking about?" Marley asked with tears in her eyes. "Why are you thinking about stuff like that? I would never break up with you."

"This is what Finn told Rachel."

Marley fell silent and didn't seem to know what to respond to that.

"Marley, listen. Maybe you'll never feel the need to make use of this letter, but if you do, promise me you'll read it then, please," Kitty said urgently and thrust the envelope into Marley's hand.

"Okay, I promise," Marley mumbled in a trembling voice. "But what if _you_ are the one who needs the letter?"

"That won't happen."

"How can you be so sure?"

Kitty cupped Marley's cheeks and wiped away her tears. "I am nothing without you."

Marley didn't object but reached for her Kitty's hands, which were still resting on her cheeks. "I want to be with you forever," she whispered.

"Let's give it a try then," Kitty replied softly. "And now stop those tears, nobody should cry on their birthday."

Marley nodded hesitantly and smiled. "I love you."

"Love you too."

Kitty kissed her on the forehead soothingly. Then she removed her hands from Marley's cheeks and pulled her into her, so that she could just hold her for a while. She wished that she would never ever have to miss this feeling.

Later the two packed up their belongings and they drove to Kitty's house. "Alright, I present you the last surprise for today…at least I think so," Kitty said smilingly and held the door open for Marley. Immediately the whole Glee-club rushed up to them and congratulated/hugged/sang to Marley, who was still looking a little taken aback.

"I've never had a surprise party," she said happily. "Did you organize all this, Kitty?"

"Sure, it definitely wasn't mini-Obama's idea." Kitty darted a triumphant look at Jake. _Sometimes_ she just had to do this. It was still so much fun

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Marley flung her arms around Kitty's neck and Kitty was actually surprised that she felt extraordinarily happy only because she made someone else happy. Strange. It felt kind of…awesome.

"Best birthday ever."


End file.
